Saudi Arabia Is Buying Up American Farmland To Export Agricultural Products Back Home
Submitted by Mike Krieger via Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,
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.”
Crucially, the issue of land rights comes into play.
The area of the Arizona desert where the Saudis bought land is a region with little or no regulation on groundwater use. That's in contrast to most of the state, 85 percent of which has strict groundwater rules. 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.
Sure, conserve local, exploit American. Just brilliant.
"We're not getting oil for free, so why are we giving our water away for free?" asked La Paz County Board of Supervisors Chairman Holly Irwin.
...
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.
(9 votes)
»
- Login or register to post comments
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -
Good for them.
Mexico restricts foreign ownership. Just look how incredible Mexico is doing.
That's actually smart considering that the US Dollar has become a major Problem >> https://goo.gl/IoiSjv
I'm still waiting for UKnoWho to catch on to the next Straw-man and blame the Saudi's for the demise oif the US economy... "Why, just when My Policies were Resurrecting Us from the Errors of the Bush years, the Saudi's Torpedoed our Country, representing Terrorist Acts Against America."
Pot.....Kettle.....Black.
Fuck the Saudis in the ass ... and no lube
USA Is Still Buying Up Saudi Royalty To Export Oil Products Back Home
The Saudis are using cash paid for their oil by the American sheeple
The Saudi Royals are using Federal Reserve Notes Traded for the Saudi people's oil.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-wiki-saudi-money-idUSTRE71R2SA20110228
when war with iran happens and it is depopulation time, those folks are going to starve.
Did they tell their old Pal Barry that they would like to buy some free range cattle ranches out West?
If the Chinese were already doing this and now the Saudis are starting it, how much more left can there be? They all need to dump those FRN for something useful.
You're not using it anyway, we might as well get some money for it. What you and your fellow citizens eat does not come from those fields. You fat bastards gobble up McPuke burgers that are scraped off the salughterhouse floors.
Yay Dr. Burry, not nobody on ZH ever mentioned that water play, makes perfect sense.
But don't blame Saudi for CA & AZ drought.
why would they ship hay instead of beef? is it cheaper to raise cows in the fucking desert with imported hay than the factory farms here? Something seems wrong with the story.
Quality control. If you're shipping beef you'll have to freeze it reducing the quality most likely. I have to imagine the ones payrolling to have American alfalfa fed beef aren't the low class of the desert.
Shane!! Come back Shane!
This is precisely what the Hammonds and Bundys are standing for in Oregon. They may not articulate this as well as they could (bag of dicks), but the BLM works for the moneyed interests, such as the House of Saud, and against American citizens who have a legitimate claim to the land.
The only legitimate claim to the land comes from the guy with the biggest guns and the most willingness to use them. Just ask the natives.
Yeah, the Comanche was pretty good at fuckin up the Tonkawa, no doubt about it...and the Utes...and the Apache and the...well...
So, yeah, strength always rules the day.
With the greatest respect (and remorse) for all my pacifist friends, what you think is not how the world actually works.
Thank you, sir. We are either a nation of laws that ALL must follow, or not. Some have realized we are sliding fast into neo-fuedalism/world communism, and have taken a stand against the would-be oligarchs. It's really too bad there is no mainstream media that is reporting on the WHOLE STORY.
Yeah, I suppose Britannia thought they knew how the world actually works until that starved Indian high on non violence managed to expell them...
Indians...non violent?...lmao!
Not only was that land taken from the native Americans by force and/or trickery, but it was then distributed by the Federal government in the form of FREE SHIT HANDOUTS FOR POOR IMMIGRANTS.
J.P. MORGAN and Edward Curtis - North American Indian
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czjvrXSoSaU
Don't it always seem to go That you don't know what you've got ‘Til it's gone. Going once, going twice...SOLD!
We are going to rue the day that much of our most valuable agricultural land is paved over or not accessable to the citizens of our countries. Nothing wrong in looking after the interests of citizens of your country first, and corporatioins aren't citizens.
Bubbles
If they buy the land they should be free to do whatever they want with it.
What the hell is wrong with growing hay?
but, but, it is the big bad Saudi's stealing our water!
Correct me if I am wrong here but I think this article is calling for... government regulation... on water useage and on the export of that other implement of terrorism... hay...
From a very microscopic view of this situation and a cut and dry application of property rights you both may have an argument, but I honestly think that the core of this issue runs much deeper than that. The West is truely unlike the rest of the United States with regards to water and property rights, and to think that just because some one buys a piece of land means they can pump out as much as they wish from under them is short sighted and will ultimately result in the demise of this region as we are currently wittnessing.
With that sort of logic whomever has the largest pocketbooks will be able to out-drill their competetors leaving others high and dry, and because of the mind blowing percentage of federal owned land out here those with money stroke their DC butt pals for deals on the dime.
To me this issue touches on some of the fundamental basis points of property rights like those raised by Proudhon. If I live in an area where we have to truck in water because the water table has dropped so far the wells are dry, why should I allow large corporations to be subsidised to buy property to grow almounds on just to ship to Japan cause it can make a dollar? That company may not even be American owned so the dollars aren't even staying and being invested around here.
You don't need some government fucking agency and regulation to patrol this, just don't sell farmland to fucking non americans. Why the fuck would I even be part of an entity known as a nation if it wasn't to protect against some bullshit like this.
I honestly think that the core of this issue runs much deeper than that.
Yes. I am an American. I buy this land in Blythe and pump out the max water I can, and raise alfalfa, and sell the alfalfa to buyers outside the U.S. They get good alfalfa and my neighbors' well's go dry.
How is that any different than the Saudis buying the land and doing the same thing? Same depletion of water table. Same selling of alfalfa to foreigners. What does it matter that I do this or that the Saudis do this? The water table gets depleted the same in either instance and the alfalfa is sold offshore.
Is the issue really about who is depleting the water table? Or is the issue that Americans don't get the benefit that comes from depleting the water table (they don't get to use the alfala).?
Look at the satellite view of this link. Blythe, CA - along the Colorado River:
https://www.google.com/maps/@33.5964455,-114.5958556,20478m/data=!3m1!1e3?hl=en
Nothing, but they didn't buy the whole fucking watershed either.
Absolutely. Eventually we are trading them hay for oil. And we still have coal.
Why is this troubling after how many years that you american joo fucks have used SA as a puppet and slave to your engery greed. Fuck you. Hopefully they'll install some sleeper cell mentalities into the mexicans that they hire as workers.
this phenomenon happens to all third world countries. WAIT JUST A DAMN MINUTE!!
Barry Soetoro never, ever criticizes sunni nations. He may criticize a leader that he wishes to depose, but otherwise everything is all our fault.
We don't allow foreign ownership of Kansas grain producing land to suck up our water resources.
We are doing a fine job ourselves of sucking the Ogallala Aquifer dry without their help.
They simply insert a proxy US domiciled company in the middle to own the assets and lease them out from foreign owners or something equivalent. It happens all the time.
About the Ogallala aquifer: absolutely true. It's amazing how far the water table has dropped out there since the 1940s. Most of that drop has happened since the 70s and the worst draw has been in the last 25 years.
Wrong....Kansas grain producing farm land can only be controlled by a corporation registered in Kansas. All boardmember have to be Kansas citizens.
If it was possible to sell my grain producing farmland to a "foreign" corporation in Wyoming or Panama that does not provide a list of boardmembers or major stock holders I would have renounced my citizenship years ago and left. Yes the corporation would have had to pay tax on revenue but I would not have to pay personal taxes on the "dividends."
If not true, prove it to me..............give me a name and number of your corporate lawyer.
Is this one reason why the left seems to go after Kansas so much?... they can't break the in-house nature and strength of the farm community?
This seems to give more creedence to the theory revolving around the Hammond fiasco. The government wants the land to sell to foreign countries due to its value in resources.
Confirmation comes in 2's?
Not exacxtly the sort of petrodollar recycling ole Henry Kissinger had in mind, eh?
9-11 (1971)
It's good those old evil vampire fucks are still around to see their plans fall apart..
Bring dollars back into US economy instead exchanging for US gold was exactly Nixon/Kissinger goal.
As long as we don’t go Mobutu Sese Seko on them……….time will tell.
Kissinger's goal was for the vast majority - if not all, in his wild dreams - of petrodollar flows would be directed into financial assets (especially, U.S. Treasuries) and the suport of the U.S. arms industry.
Old news.
Since the U.S. government owns most everything west of the Mississippi, we can afford to sell some.Hell, sell them some of Utah. A-rabs gotta bunch of wives. Sons of Joseph Smith gotta bunch of wives. Like a match made in heaven err Hell.
I want names and addresses of all involved.
Carpetbagging foreigners must be run out of town on a rail or the REPUBLIC SHALL FALL.
"I'm outraged!"
~Soweto
22winmag...Tonight's Powerball Winner!
Edit: You may have to split it with nmewn. (see below)
It fell a long time ago ......
One guy, on a hill, with a .308 can fix it.
I mean..."our laws" don't mean anything anymore...right?