Guest Post by
Just what we need, cornfield crucifixions.
Seriously though, this is very troubling. The Saudis are explicitly conserving their own resources at home, while exploiting land and water supplies here in America.
CNBC reports:
Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf countries are scooping up farmland in drought-afflicted regions of the U.S. Southwest, and that has some people in California and Arizona seeing red.
Saudi Arabia grows alfalfa hay in both states for shipment back to its domestic dairy herds. In another real-life example of the world’s interconnected economy, the Saudis increasingly look to produce animal feed overseas in order to save water in their own territory, most of which is desert.
Privately held Fondomonte California on Sunday announced that it bought 1,790 acres of farmland in Blythe, California — an agricultural town along the Colorado River — for nearly $32 million. Two years ago, Fondomont’s parent company, Saudi food giant Almarai, purchased another 10,000 acres of farmland about 50 miles away in Vicksburg, Arizona, for around $48 million.
But not everyone likes the trend. The alfalfa exports are tantamount to “exporting water,” because in Saudi Arabia, “they have decided that it’s better to bring feed in rather than to empty their water reserves,” said Keith Murfield, CEO of United Dairymen of Arizona, a Tempe-based dairy cooperative whose members also buy alfalfa. “This will continue unless there’s regulations put on it.”
Recall, this is precisely the type of investment Michael Burry of “Big Short” fame recently said he was involved in.
In a statement announcing the California farmland purchase, the Saudi company said the deal “forms part of Almarai’s continuous efforts to improve and secure its supply of the highest quality alfalfa hay from outside the (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) to support its dairy business. It is also in line with the Saudi government direction toward conserving local resources.”
Sure, conserve local, exploit American. Just brilliant.
Added Irwin, “We’re letting them come over here and use up our resources. It’s very frustrating for me, especially when I have residents telling me that their wells are going dry and they have to dig a lot deeper for water. It’s costly for them to drill new wells.”
Local development and groundwater pumping have contributed to the groundwater table falling since 2010 by more than 50 feet in parts of La Paz County, 130 miles west of Phoenix. State documents show there are at least 23 water wells on the lands controlled by Alamarai’s subsidiary, Fondomonte Arizona. Each of the wells is capable of pumping more than 100,000 gallons daily.
“You can use as much water as you’d like, as long as it’s put to a beneficial use, and you’re not required to report your water use,” said Michelle Moreno, a spokesperson for the Arizona Department of Water Resources, which has scheduled a public meeting for Jan. 30 in La Paz County to hear concerns from residents.
More competition for land and fodder is likely to make things more expensive for dairy farmers in California and elsewhere.
“It will ultimately drive the price up for the West Coast dairy operations,” said Robert Chesler, vice president of the dairy group at FCStone, a Chicago-based commodity-risk management company. “This is where they are buying that hay. This is where they are buying the farmland for dairy farms as well as and where they are buying the dairy goods, because we are obviously exporting more out of the West Coast.”
Just another example of the Saudis giving it good and hard to American public.
For related articles, see:
From Baghdad to Bahrain…From Beruit to Tehran – Tensions Are Exploding Across the Middle East
German Intelligence Warns – Saudi Arabia to Play “Destabilizing Role” in the Middle East
A Look Inside Saudi Arabia’s Elaborate U.S. Propaganda Machine
Saudi Arabia and ISIS – A Side by Side Comparison
Another New Low – Saudi Arabia Threatens to Sue Twitter Users Who Compare it to ISIS
Saudi Arabia Bombs Second Yemeni Wedding in a Week – At Least 23 Dead
Saudi Arabia Forces the UN to Drop Humanitarian Inquiry Into Yemen Atrocities
In Liberty,
Michael Krieger
EPA has poisoned major underground water aquafirs in how many states?Why is O puppet shadow gov doing this? Every dictator in history has used starvation to control population
Why are they doing it? Because they can. When they figured out that americans were dumb enough not to realize that the 19 Saudi hijackers were patsies, they realized they can do pretty much whatever they want. Dancing with the Stars is just too important….
Mixed emotions — it’s better to sell them land & even let them have a few harvests, as long as we get paid $$ on the barrel head for the acreage. Once things really heat up & Americans get a handle on how the kids & great grand kids of Abraham/Ibrahim truly feel about the middle generation, we can always expropriate it. By then, local control will easily trump federal interference & you can just forget about anything that’s done by treaty.
I find this development far more frightening than Japanese & Chinese overpaying for prime urban properties. Push come to shove, nobody NEEDS a high rise condo that cost $35M, and the money spent on such by chumps will make them that much poorer.
However, we will be desperately needing our farmland, if our population continues to grow while the fossil fuel resources on which high-yield agriculture depends, deplete over time. We baby boomers and Gen X people might not live to experience the crunch, but our children and grandchildren could easily live into a time in which arable land and water are critically short, and hostile foreigners own the resources on which we depend for our lives, and we will relearn the meaning of a word that has almost passed out of the vocabulary of Americans: FAMINE.
We are one of the few countries in the world that permits non-citizens to buy and hold assets such as real property on the same terms as citizens. Time to get wise… and self-protective. No non-citizen should be permitted to own a controlling interest in real property.
I’ve always thought that no foreigners should be allowed to own our land or resources unless they themselves lived here full time and paid full taxes here. I also believe that every one of these all encompassing laws we pass like the Federal Reserve Act, Social Security, Obama Care, etc should be required to be re-affirmed by each generation.
Fucking Saudis need to be buying their food from American owned and operated farms and paying competitive export taxes on it.
Is that nationalism bubbling to the surface, IS, chicago? I love it. There’s hope for you guys. Carry on.
And Krieger, nice article
Where are they getting their water?Its illegal for citizens to collect rain water, Saudis?
IndenturedServant says:……………… Saudis need to be buying their food from American owned and operated farms and paying competitive export taxes on it.
IS nails it, Not much to add here
15 square miles of alfalfa, less than 10,000 acres, amounts to nothing. It’s the trend that matters.
Chicago: I’m not sure I’d call that farmland. It’s DESERT. It’s not arable land without the water and that situation isn’t getting any better. NO ONE is going to be able to farm that indefinitely.
This ticks me off. I’m aware of assholes coming into Arizona from California to buy huge plots of land around Willcox and Bowie to grow pecan and pistachio trees, which require enormous amounts of underground water to irrigate the groves of trees. It’s gotten so bad that the town of Bowie has to RATION water for the town residents while these pricks from California keep flooding their groves with thousands of acre-feet of water.
But the Saudis? Growing alfalfa for their dairy cattle and sucking our underground water? That’s total bullshit.
I know a lot of people on this site think Arizona is a Looney Tunes state based on constant bad publicity in the national media over issues like illegal immigration, Sheriff Joe Arpaio, and gun laws. Well, I disagree. Strongly. Arizona is one of the last potential bastions in this country on protecting individual liberty for its citizens.
Note my use of the word citizens. And the Saudis don’t count. I bet Arizona’s government will try and fix this crap. Water is a huge issue in Arizona, and these fucking camel drivers will eventually hit a brick wall here.
SSS, AZ is no different than any other state. They’re all corrupt and are controlled via carrot and stick from Mordor. I think Arpaio is an asset. If you guys don’t want him, send him up my way!
strfcker, I’ve been a nationalist since the Japanese real estate buying boom here in the states. Nothing new about it!
It didnt go well for the Jap’s, I remember articles with the same tone. It’s not like they or the Chinese get to plant flags or have Special National Zones, yet. It would take a bankruptcy event for allodial title to transfer in any meaningful way, at least on the books. Otherwise they are just bitches in the wind like the rest of us, taxes, epa, eminent domain, and on and on.
They say for feedstock but all the alfalfa is probably for they royals massive heard of Arabians, those beautiful ponies cant go hungry.
“SSS, AZ is no different than any other state. They’re all corrupt and are controlled via carrot and stick from Mordor.”
—-IndenturedServant
Arizona is VERY different. It is a poor state, one of the poorest in the nation, that is struggling but succeeding at the same time.
There are more Indians, Native Americans if you prefer, living in Arizona than any other state. And most of them are living on reservations (at their choice, btw) and beset by poverty and alcoholism. Illegal immigrants? Try 10% of the population, most of whom are also poor, uneducated and working, if at all, at minimum wage jobs.
No state in the union, with less natural resources and less of an economic base, faces the challenges that Arizona does. None. Zero. Zip. Nada.
Consider. The state budget for Arizona is $9.5 billion in 2016 and the city of Chicago is $8 billion. Hmmm. Arizona is 6.6 million people, and Chicago is 3.3 million. Do the math, IS. If Arizona were spending on the level of Chicago, its budget would be $16 billion. Yet poor Arizona gets by on $9.5 billion, has a $500 million rainy day fund, and Chicago is flat broke.
And you call my state corrupt while Boeing and Microsoft squeezes your precious Washington state’s balls at every opportunity. Arizona has NO major corporate headquarters. None.
Arizona is VERY different, and I stand firmly behind that statement. I am very proud to reside here.
SSS, Arizonia sucks ass you crazy fucker. You stupid bastards elect John “my jaw hurts” McCain. That’s as fucking dumb as it gets. Enough said.
Don’t make me start in on how you dumb cocksuckers can’t defend that stretch of southern border. The God Damn average IQ in Arizonia is 62, just behind Papua New Guinea, and those bastards don’t wear clothes and suck each other’s dicks at will. Arizonia is jam packed with stupid fuckers without the ability to identify an illegal Mexican with a backpack. But you’re proud to live there, well, look at you. Should I post pictures of the trash just south of Tuscon left behind by the garbage you stupid fucks let in? Great Place to live my ass!
SSS, I meant the same in terms of corruption from within and above……..AZ is not different.
There aren’t many big defense companies in AZ but there are a few companies headquartered in AZ. Not sure if they qualify as “majors” though.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Arizona_companies
Personally I like AZ. My wife and I have it on a short list of places we might retire.
Sensetti gets drunk and shows his ass again.
I spent the summer of 1987 in Tuscon, was standing beside the road with my hat in hand as Lee Marvin went by for his final ride in a motor vehicle. It was a great place, went to Nogales a few times, I remember walking in just not a lot of memory being there or leaving other than children followed me all over town and I threw money at them as I left one bar traveling to the next. Oh my God, my girlfriend from Tuscon was killer, Sally, blonde hair, blue eyes, gorgeous, drank Captain Morgan an coke. Her love machine had more tread than the best mud tires money will put on a jeep, would pull a negative pressure vacuum at her slightest command. I still regret the day I headed back north. Probably about the best 100 days of my life!
Drunk hell just got off work an hour ago! SSS is full of shit if he thinks Southern Arizonia is even close to what it was 30 years ago it’s a fucking shit hole today!
LLPOH I stand by what I said the Median IQ in Airzonia is in the neighborhood of 62. The dumb bastards have not the ability to recognize the invading force coming across the border. Bunch of dumb bastards right there! You say not?
What population smart enough to wipe their own ass would elected John McCain? I rest my case, I’ve not even started drinking, matter of fact gotta hit the rack. Just couldn’t let SSS get by with his bullshit about Tuscon, I know of that I speak.
What I can’t figure is how you ship hay from California to the mideast. I know we sell boatloads of hay to China and japan, but that’s logistically easy, empty ships full of empty containers heading back across the pacific make that inexpensive. But to get to the mideast, you have to cross our continent, and the only ships coming from Saudi Arabia are tankers. Sounds expensive.
Star – there is this little thing called the Panama canal. My guess is AN to a Pacific port by train then boat to middle east. Easy peasy. Gotta be expensive, but the Saudis might pay zilch for diesel, and use Phillipine crew.
SSS, Tell me/us how AZ can stand up as a State, against the Feds — on this issue or any other one. I’m not asking to be a wise-ass, I’m being sincere here. How can AZ stand up and stop this shit? So far, the Feds keep winning, keep harassing Arpaio, and your Governor rolled over on the border control.
15 sq miles? Pffft. Arizona has 114,000 square miles. Do the math.
Not that I like it. I don’t.
But the mooslimfuk Saudikunts can’t ship the land to their allah-forsaken country. With the snap of a finger Arizonians can take it back.
Then there’s also local sabotage. I’m guessing a a couple gallons of gasoline spread judiciously in a field of Al Falfa will burn up in a couple hours. We can blame Al Queda.
“But you’re (SSS) proud to live there, well, look at you. Should I post pictures of the trash just south of Tuscon left behind by the garbage you stupid fucks let in? Great Place to live my ass!”
—-Sensetti
“We” didn’t let anyone in. The U.S. Border Patrol did. And I was discussing the state of Arizona in general, and you go flying off the handle about southern Arizona and Tucson. Please try to read for comprehension.
“SSS, Tell me/us how AZ can stand up as a State, against the Feds — on this issue or any other one. I’m not asking to be a wise-ass, I’m being sincere here. How can AZ stand up and stop this shit? So far, the Feds keep winning, keep harassing Arpaio, and your Governor rolled over on the border control.”
—-I.C.
I assume you’re talking about land purchases by foreigners. Well, I don’t know how, but I’ll bet the state legislature will try, just as it did with AZ SB 1070 on illegal immigration. At least we have elected officials who TRY to stand up against an oppressive federal government and not roll over like most other lap dog states.
SSS, I was just stirring shit, sometimes I don’t my meds just to see what kinda of hell I can start. Hey that ole girl friend I spoke of above she still lives in Tuscon. I ran her through Intelius last night she’s 63 years old, Damn it! I knew she was older than me but I did not remember her being nine years older than me. She was a ten if there ever was one. I just wonder what she looks like now? The girlfriend I have now is gorgeous, she’s 44, but the old Tuscon gal left a scar. I may hire a PI to get me some pic’s, just out of curiosity. I love Tuscon, it’s a same what’s become of the southwest.
I don’t take