this post was submitted on 28 Mar 2024
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United States | News & Politics

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Hay grown for cattle consumes nearly half the water drawn from Colorado River, study finds (www.latimes.com)
submitted 7 months ago by silence7 to c/usa@lemmy.ml
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Archived copies of the article: ghostarchive.org archive.today

The study itself is here

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[–] aodhsishaj@lemmy.world 14 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (4 children)

I do not understand why we don't just plant switch grass and be done with it? It's native to a large swath of the arable land, doesn't require as much (in some areas any) irrigation and it's good for the soil. https://cropwatch.unl.edu/benefits-switchgrass-hay-and-forage

https://utia.tennessee.edu/publications/wp-content/uploads/sites/269/2023/10/SP701-B.pdf

Edit: Also 6.24 is closer to a third of 19.25 than it is a half. Which is still a massive amount of water. Why inflate the numbers by saying nearly a half?

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 12 points 7 months ago

What's even more frustrating is that it's not useful. Here's an article about Utah's water usage WRT alfalfa:

alfalfa and other kinds of hay sucks up 68% of the 5.1 million acre-feet of water diverted every year in Utah

...

amounts to 0.2% of the state’s annual gross domestic product

...

Almost a third of it is exported, mostly to China, taking far too much of our water with it.

So, Utah is using 2/3 of their water to produce 0.2% of their GDP and exports almost a third of it. It's completely stupid...

[–] punkideas@lemmy.world 4 points 7 months ago

It's because you have to use your water to keep water rights. Flood irrigating alfalfa is an easy way to use up a lot of water to keep the rights without having to manage more complex farms. The current way that water rights works creates perverse incentives.

[–] silence7 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Water which evaporates from reservoirs or wetlands isn't "drawn" from the river for human use. So it's about half of water removed for human use

[–] cjoll4@lemmy.world 2 points 7 months ago

Thanks for the clarification!

[–] delirious_owl@discuss.online 3 points 7 months ago

I dont understand why we dont ban cattle breeding & importing and be done with it?