Part of Utah's alfalfa harvest is exported, raising questions about the wisdom of using Utah's precious water to feed dairy cows in Asia.
“We’re just so attached to the farm mythology. As a nation, it’s part of our origin story, this bedrock idea of family farms, even though most of them are corporate,” Ewert says. “But the fundamental flaw is alfalfa is a water-thirsty crop, and we live in a desert, so it’s a mismatch from the beginning.”
The federal government subsidized Western water development in part to support agricultural production in an arid region dependent on irrigation. Shipping alfalfa overseas defeats the purpose of this massive public investment in infrastructure, since exported hay is not available to feed the West’s livestock and dairy industries, some critics say.
Accordingly, ships often leave California ports empty after disgorging containers full of electronics and appliances, so there is plenty of excess room on these outbound vessels for alfalfa and other West-grown agricultural commodities, according to Sumner. Bailey Farms has since acquired 3,700 acres it irrigates in Box Elder County. Today the firm processes up to 150,000 tons a year at three plants situated in Utah’s biggest alfalfa-growing regions: Ephraim, Tremonton and Sugarville. Collectively the plants employ about 60.
Utah growers produce way more alfalfa than local dairies can use, so they have no choice but to sell it to California and overseas dairies. In turn, Utah imports water-intensive crops that its farms can’t grow. “Even though the shipping costs aren’t that high, you’re not going to ship it that far unless it’s the best stuff,” Sumner says. “You don’t want to load a whole bunch of transportation costs onto a lousy bale of hay.”
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