The Food and Water Watch published a report detailing threats to Colorado River Basin and water stability from big ag.
The report published this month, says that alfalfa grown for mega-dairies and largescale companies for cattle feed used 2.2 trillion gallons of water across the seven basin states in 2022 alone. This is enough water to meet the indoor household needs of all the nearly 40 million people who rely on the Colorado River system for water for three and a half years.
"It's impacting the availability and quality of water in the Colorado River," said Amanda Starbuck, research director for the Food and Water Watch.
Starbuck says this is concerning because if regulations are not put in place, this could affect the water stability for the Colorado River Basin and all seven states that rely on it.
The report also gives a list of policy recommendations for state and federal leaders to prohibit more growth from large-scale alfalfa companies and mega-dairies and to put more focus on small-scale farming. And, to reexamine water regulations and prohibit the exporting of alfalfa out of the country.
Starbuck says that as much as 30% of alfalfa that’s grown in Utah alone is being exported abroad.
“One of the concerns here is that we're basically exporting what's called virtual water trading, we're exporting our water out of the country to other areas," Starbuck said.
There is no deadline for leaders to respond to policy recommendations, but Starbuck says they will need to reexamine regulations at some point and the sooner the better.
"We're not asking to close any farms at all. But we're saying we should kind of pause the moratorium, stop the growth of these industries at this large scale, and really make it easier for farmers to get by on smaller and more diversified operations," Starbuck said.
