Many farms may not recover from this drought

By Gary Nabhan, director
Center for Sustainable Environments
Northern Arizona University

Whenever it has rained or snowed in the West this winter, ranchers and farmers have wondered whether the new moisture has been significant enough to break the drought and get their operations back to a normal business routine.

But the sad truth is that there is no "normal" condition in much of the arid West; we spend most of our time either in drought or recovering from it. And regardless of when the meteorological drought is finally broken, it will be many more years, if ever, that farms and ranches will be able to recover from what we might call hydrological and economic droughts. Reservoirs will take years to refill, and the food economy is fraught will instability.

Although this view may sound rather gloomy or cynical, a review of the consequences of the droughts in the 1930s and '50s bears me out. Range-fed sheep and cattle stocking rates never returned to what they were prior to those droughts. Because there were crop failures of dry-farmed grains and beans, many farms went belly-up in the Dust Bowl and never relied on rain alone again.

Still, two factors make this drought different than those in the '30s and '50s. First, today's farmers are not suffering crop failures as much as they are suffering from higher production costs that now keep them in debt. Rather than seeing their crops dry up because rains are sparse and reservoir levels are down, they are investing more in buying and transporting water, controlling pests and maintaining costly irrigation systems.

Since the drought began in 1997, Arizona farmers and ranchers have shouldered 22 percent more debt than they did before. Such debt has forced many out of business, so that we've been losing an average of 100 farms and ranches in Arizona since the drought began, opposed to the long-term average of 82 lost per year.

But the second, unparalleled factor at work today is much more insidious. Government policies on water allocation during drought have put farmers, ranchers and the food security they offer us at a selective disadvantage, whereas water-consumptive urban growth has continued unchecked.

During the past two years, when farmers in the Metro Phoenix area have been forced to cut back their irrigation by 30 percent, urban users have barely diminished their water use by 5 percent, and most of that savings has been due to the valiant efforts of city park managers to use less water.

Regardless of how much central Arizona farmers cut back on their irrigation needs, no more water is truly being conserved for wildlife habitats and future needs because 25,000 more users take up residence in Metro Phoenix every year. In general, residents of Southwestern cities have increased their per capita use by one-fourth over the past quarter century, while farmers have reduced per acre use by one-fifth. Is this fair?

The net effect is that during this drought, more food-producing land has been sold to shopping mall and subdivision developers than ever before. This is because there are few policies that assist farmers and ranchers in resisting urban sprawl. The long-term consequences of such gaps in land and water policy is that more and more of America's food is coming from off-shore sources. We have sacrificed some of the most fertile lands in the world to asphalt and concrete. In doing so, we have compromised our own food security and safety – few countries regulate pesticides and other contaminants to the extent that the U.S. does.

As an attempt to counter such devastating trends in the Southwestern states, the Center for Sustainable Environments is launching a branding campaign to help farmers and ranchers survive this drought. Their direct-marketed products can be labeled with tags and stickers urging consumers to "Get Yours Fresh from Canyon Country."

Nearly half of Arizona's consumers, when surveyed, say that they would be willing to pay more for such locally produced foods; they are particularly interested in fresh, good-quality produce and meats grown with water-conserving, environmentally friendly practices.

If households, restaurants and cafeterias choose to purchase more "Canyon Country Fresh" products, farmers and ranchers will gain more of each consumer food dollar, and will perhaps have the means to reduce their debts and recover from the economic drought.

It is time for Westerners to rally together to ensure that our region's farmers and ranchers are guaranteed enough water to provide our communities with secure food supplies. If we don't, we will be increasing our vulnerability to contaminated vegetables from Mexico and downer cattle from Canada.