Eric C. Ewert: Only the end of alfalfa farming in Utah will make a real difference in saving the Great Salt Lake.
Pivot irrigation on an alfalfa field in Mt. Carmel on Thursday, Nov. 10, 2022.Interest in the fate of Utah’s Once Great Salt Lake has never been higher. With media, years of, advocacy groups, abundant research and lots of new legislative money, even the endless development climate deniers have finally realized that northern Utah’s environmental and economic future rests largely on this long-neglected and abused broad pool of salty water.
The problem, though, is that everything we’ve committed to so far is no more than an expensive band-aid on a ruptured aorta. Great Salt Lake needs emergency surgery right now, and without a profound paradigm shift,Luckily, there is one paradigm-shifting scenario that quickly and easily refills the lake and replenishes all the ecological and economic benefits it bestows upon us: Stop growing alfalfa.
Before the angry mob of farmers, ranchers, water district supervisors, legislators and their teams of attorneys call for my head, let me state that what follows is based on widely available data. Don’t take my word for it; go do your own research. And let me say right up front that farmers ought to be fairly compensated for their lost water.
Armed with a wealth of carefully analyzed data, University of Utah economist Gabriel A. Lozada, has brilliantly summarized the imprudence of focusing our conservation efforts on urban water users instead of agriculture’s profligate consumption. Everyone should read his sensible. Lozada’s report, and indeed most Utah data, is collected at the state level.
All true, but wouldn’t the state’s economy take a big hit if we stopped growing hay? No. Simple calculations from the 2021 Economic Report to the Governor document that hay and alfalfa generate .2% of the state’s total GDP. In fact, all combined, the entire agricultural sector contributed .44% to the state’s annual GDP. No fiscal conservative would ever support using 68% of our water to generate one fifth of 1% of our state’s economy. But we do.
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