US: Lawmaker introduces bill to rein in Saudi water usage in Arizona
US: Lawmaker introduces bill to rein in Saudi water usage in Arizona
Congressman Ruben Gallego says Arizona's water and crops 'belong in Arizona, not Saudi Arabia'
A US lawmaker from the state of Arizona has introduced legislation in Congress that would impose a 300 percent tax on the sale of water-intensive crops grown by foreign companies in the state, in a bid to curb the extensive use of water in the drought-stricken state.
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This is more of an anti-foreigner measure than it is about protecting water resources. If they cared, they would have curbed consumption in general.
It's bad when US citizens are sucking up all the water.
It's even worse when a foreign country that has made hostile attacks against the United States does the same thing.
Yes, but I'm sure a couple of very rich people profit from this, you see!
/s
Anti-foreign ownership of domestic resources. Not anti-foreigner.
Otherwise yes.
OK now do foreign ownership of real estate. I'm getting close.
No release for you
Whatever reigns this shit in. I say this as a liberal stuck in a rural Arizona town who's water is being stolen. About 10 years ago a farm popped up just outside of town and it now consumes most of the valley we live in. This farm pumps 10x the consumption of the entire city with a population of 80,000. Peoples wells are running dry and this dude pays nothing for this water.
This is the desert. Nothing is supposed to grow here. We probably shouldn't even live here.
Fuck these guys, I don't care where they are from. But if it takes xenophobia for the idiots in this state to vote on it, go ahead. If the crops are for local use, well, we did fine before they showed up. We didn't need those farms. So they will go away. If the market for these stupid unethical crops isn't propped up by foreign consumption they wouldn't exist.
We're farming in unsustainable ways all over the US. It really needs to be regulated. I drove through West Texas and New Mexico not long ago and just couldn't believe the amount of farming going on. Surrounded by desert lush green fields of crops. They're rapidly depleting the water table.
We grow thirsty inneficient crops we shouldnt. Often in deserts or areas under constant draught conditions. Water is too cheap for agricultural use. It needs to be more expensive to encourage more responsibility. As long as we continue to practice capitalism, it's the only real answer.
Still it will be more than a drop in the bucket. The amount of water pumped for these water intensive cropd was insane.
Eh. I’ll take it as a win
Food security is a national security issue for good reason. They're basically exporting the water table and ruining farm land by depleting the water table. Honestly foreign interests just shouldn't be able to produce agricultural goods in other countries. There's a vast amount of potential abuse that can be done. Water is the next oil, it's not correctly priced for it's economic value currently and letting foreign interests use the water within your borders is not a good idea.
Its the consumption of of water. One of the plants that is likely targeted by the tax is alfalfa, which is a plant used for animal feed. The top importers of alfalfa is china, uae and saudi arabia. Alfalfa is a very water intensive plant and most of its grown in the southwest/California.
It basically makes states $ at the cost that its a huge water drainer. Albeit not Arizona, keep in mind in california, resident use of water is only like 5% of the supply, and wouldnt be suprised of Arizona would be similar. Were in a drought basically to subsidize the price of poultry/cattle for other major nations
If it was about water, it wouldnt matter who was doing the extracting. Removing water is removing water and everyone doing it no matter where they were based should be charged that tax but they're not. Like... if foreign companies were the main ones using a ton of water, there would be no need to target that tax to them specifically because theyd be hit with it just by using all those water resources anyway. But targeting it suggests that the state is fine with American companies wasting water, they just dont want foreigners doing it.
Well yes but this foreign company is using the water to grow a product that is exported. Foreign companies who are doing the same thing to sell locally may get screwed by this, but I’m not sure how many would be affected.
Agree completely, but hear me out. It's politically difficult to ask ranchers and farmers to do anything. Like historically, a lot of our domestic policy centers around keeping them happy - the idea being that they are providing such a vital service that we don't want to mess with them much.
That's why Bundy thought he was going to get away with free grazing forever, and why huge swathes of homestead were granted a few hundred years ago - gotta get people turning dirt into food/money.
So even if this is primarily anti-foreign, it still provides a sorely needed example of legislation that could pass, and then the practice in bureaucracy needed to enforce it. It can be expanded. Let them pass this, and then lobby and advocate for adding groups to it in future legislative sessions.
It's not a bill against farmers. In this case, farmland is leased to a Saudi company called Fondomonte, which uses the state's groundwater to grow alfalfa, which is then exported to feed cows in the country.