A blanket of bright green alfalfa spreads across western Arizona’s McMullen Valley, ringed by rolling mountains and warmed by the hot desert sun.

Matthew Hancock’s family has used groundwater to grow forage crops here for more than six decades. They’re long accustomed to caprices of Mother Nature that can spoil an entire alfalfa cutting with a downpour or generate an especially big yield with a string of blistering days.

But concerns about future water supplies from the valley’s ancient aquifers, which hold groundwater supplies, are bubbling up in Wenden, a town of around 700 people where the Hancock family farms.

Some neighbors complain their backyard wells have dried up since the Emirati agribusiness Al Dahra began farming alfalfa here on about 3,000 acres (1,214 hectares) several years ago.

  • @not_that_guy05
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    6810 months ago

    Or you know, we should stop farming in the desert. But that’s just me.

    • @guacupado
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      1110 months ago

      Sure, we should, but using our water to farm for another country is even worse.

  • Norgur
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    3110 months ago

    Isn’t that one of those cases where people farm alfalfa and sich just to keep their water allowance while the state issues water quotas on made up water availability figures which vastly overstate how much water is actually available?

    • @Fredselfish
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      1010 months ago

      Salt Lake is drying up in Utah that will make the city unhabitable for the same fucking crop. And no one stops them.

      This kind of shit you get your pitchforks out and start dragging rich people from thier fucking homes.

  • @Sanctus
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    1810 months ago

    It doesn’t help we elected a water official whose only experience is selling water to the Saudis. Wanna guess what he instantly did the moment his power was switched on?

      • @Sanctus
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        310 months ago

        In a way, yes. That is basically the sentence when you’re selling water out of the desert like they’re hot cakes.

  • BlackbeardM
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    710 months ago

    “We told you so” incoming in 3, 2, 1…

  • @A_A
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    10 months ago

    Sounds like a made up word (but no) :
    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfalfa

    Alfalfa, also called lucerne, is a perennial flowering plant (…). It is cultivated as an important forage crop in many countries around the world. It is used for grazing, hay, and silage, as well as a green manure and cover crop.

      • @A_A
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        10 months ago

        Very good indeed. I heard there is concern about salmonella bacteria in alfalfa… Maybe soaking in water + salt + vinegar be enough ?
        Edit (from wikipedia) :

        Alfalfa sprouts may contain microbiological pathogens, mainly from Salmonella or E. coli, which have caused numerous food product recalls and illness outbreaks, putting sprouts into a “high risk” category for food safety. People with weakened immune systems, such as the elderly, pregnant women, or those taking prescription drugs affecting the immune system, should not eat sprouts.