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.
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This is what happens when decisions are made based on 'money' not sense.
If something is financialised it is FUCKED.
Trouble is, everything has been financialised.
Inroduce a swine gene into their crops...Monsanto..
When you have bin liners full of US Treasuries, common sense dictates, you trade them for real assets.
US exploitation of other countries = Good!
SA exploitation of the US = Bad!
Karma comes full circle. ;-)
Psychopaths exploiting productive humans - good.
exploited humans fighthing back - bad.
or so the psychopaths would have humanity believe.
Do not throw around the "psychopath" label.
It waters down and provides cover for the lesser on the gray scale of antisocial disorders,
and in our times, the lesser in critical mass are most dangerous.
^^ This is very important to understand.
Also, if you throw around labels loosely the disordered people in the halls of power will be able to use those labels as well because you have clouded the understanding of their application.
Personally, I have no problem with them buying US farmland. As soon as it gets to be worth it, time to pay them back for nationalizing Aramco.
"Green Acres" Opening and Closing Theme Song
How and the hell can any entity afford to ship hay for dairy cows hale way around the world unless it really is Monopoly money? Hey, wait a minute. Maybe, just maybe that flood of worthless paper is being spent while it is still worth something in trade. Question . Is milk 125 dollars a gallon over there ? Someone is paying to ship hay that far. Just wondering . Lately too much wondering makes my head hurt .
Maybe they're shipping something else,,, something very valuable to them.....
They are shipping quality feed to their beloved Arabian horses. They race them in Lexington, KY, flying them in via specially outfitted 747s.
They are shipping quality feed to their beloved Arabian horses. They race them in Lexington, KY, flying them in via specially outfitted 747s.
They gotta keep the goat herd alive. Much more than milk and cheese involved here. In SA a goat herd = poor mans harem.
All kidding aside. If the sand niggers could only figure out to grow a forest in Nankai Trough regions.
Agenda 21 - Sustainable Development
Something smells big time about this story. You want to tell me that they can't find fertile farmland to buy any closer than CA?
Do you have any idea how expensive it would be to ship hay from CA to the middle east? It would cost more than the HAY ITSELF!!!
Something very, VERY fishy about this story. It smells bad.
Instead of alfalfa, they'll be planting sunni communities soon.
The public schools in Austin are having issues with trying to find ESL teachers for all the migrant children from the ME.
Shipping aint bad...have you seen the price of oil lately.
Hay and mold don't mix for feeding your animals.
It also costs a great deal to handle it. Have you ever heard of how much the union dock workers make, lately?
Consulate of Saudi Arabia
5718 Westheimer, Suite 1500
Houston, Texas 77057
I hear they love mail order pork bellies.
No wonder prices are outrageous here in SD, CA. Stupid corrupt gov't on both sides
Piece meal the Obama immigration policy. It all adds up.
I seriously doubt an American landowner would have paid anything close to market price for water, if he could get away with not doing so.
And, of course, the landowner could have sold his alfalfa to the Saudis just as easily, given that nobody in DC will propose sanctions on sales of food to Saudi Arabia while Saudi still has a drop of cheap oil left. Only Russia has the dubious honour of being forbidden to buy food from EU farmers.
The real problem is that the Saudis are being suffered to eat anything but cobalt-salted sand.
If using Saudi as a testing ground for the latest generation of nukes isn't an option, an embargo on sales of food to Saudi would bring the House of Saud to its knees in months, if not weeks. The alfalfa is bought stateside because Saudi is a howling desert. When the oil money runs out, most of the population face starvation.
http://www-odp.tamu.edu/publications/190196SR/205/205_5.htm
Better cover myself with a sarcasm tag. Don't need a herd of camels showing up in our Fort Myers gated community.
BTW, so pissed off that I missed Donald Trump in North Charleston. We love you Donald. Had to come down to Florida to supervise a contractor taking 4 weeks to complete a job. Just imagine how quickly things get done when you put your foot up their ass.
Keep up the good work Mr. Trump.
Sounds like they've learned well from their American counterparts.
The American public has been long sold down the river by our ZOG controllers.
Oh Mikey, now you want those evil goobmint regulations and good ole protectionism? Guess if I should google your bibliography I'd find more than a thousand articles of you talking against that. Well, times sure are a-changing, ain't they?
Saudi cattle feeding on American alfalfa must be some ZH joke.Must be a big herd.May be their goats have a bovine appetite. Perspective is lost somewhere.It is China who is buying California alfalfa because they do not want to send back the containers empty and they get more money than selling it to local drought devastad farmers.Its been going on for a few years...
The Saudi's selling alfalfa to China makes more sense than shipping hay to KSA for domestic use. Alfalfa is fed to horses and cows. Not sure if it is used much with goats or camels or sheep.
If the Saudi's have a market for alfalfa in China, they may be taking payment in gold, yuan, rubles, euros, GBPs, golden toilet seats, "professional services", "fireworks", or "pharmaceuticals". Lots of opportunity to be found in the medium of exchange.
Wait a minute - buyinhg farmland in CA and AZ, growing alpha on it and then shipping it half way around the planet to feed cows???
OK Snopes stopping hacking ZH! Right now!!! No wait - found it. This article is in Snopes just below, "The Joints Chiefs of Staff Flip Off Obama During SOTU!"
Meanwhhile, this has got be the most expensive milk on the planet. And, the locals in AZ are only worried about water? How about the sanity of these towel heads? Noone here sees this as just a wee bit insane?
Hey, I've got an idea. How about you moron towel heads just buy the milk - wherever - and ship it over to the "kingdom"?
The price of oil has to go down some more. These towel heads and their economic policies are wacko.
...and if it comes down to it, do the Saudi's invade the U.S. to "defend" their land?
I think not...
Now This Is Just Getting Silly
Meh. We've been burning their oil instead of ours for years. Turnabout is fair play.
Kissenger offered sexual favors to create the Petrodollar.
your giving the "worlds melting pot" a free pass because they got lucky on a pitch of oil they deforested 3000 years ago? you'r a kinder man than i.
The old globalization plan has become hostage to robots and social media interactions. Someone made a bad judgment call during Bilderburg meeting last year.
/LOL.
I am fairly sure cows can not eat herbaceous material. They eat saw dust.
if im your intermediary you might want to rethink your game plan.
??
those who remain.
oregon, seeking investors/owners?
So they are going to ship alfalfa overseas? Will that be bales or silage? I will just sit back and watch how that turns out.
Another Mad cow or CDC outbreak to pump medical vaccination subsidized GDP growth within Wallstreet.
Bitchez, the economy is getting fleeced again. Welcome to Marxist Hope and Change dog and pony show.
Would be a good way to see the effects of GM alfalfa on humans.
It is not just in America they are doing this. They are doing this also in parts of Europe (with Ukraine also a good candidate but big Western AG companies are buying it all up there) and Africa. SA has two things in plenty: money and oil. Two things they have not: water and arable land. They used up all their own water rsources, spending it on their luxury items. They went from being a food exporter somewhere in the 60s/70s to a food importer. But with land it is just like with gold: if you don't hold it, you don't own it. Is this why they are bringing in people everywhere?
The alfalfa is peletized. We have been shipping it to south America, Brazil, Argentina for quite a while. Yeah goats eat it, so do high dollar Arabian horses, camels, cows etc. It is HQ high octane feed. Why wouldn't they ship it on a back haul or any container. Grass prices are up 300 percent in 15 years.
You don't want to ship live cattle on ships. The kill rate can be over 50% on a much shorter ride. Cut meat frozen is always a gamble just going cross country. South america raises much better beef then we do. I'm sure the Japanese feed their Kobi beef some good American alfalfa as well. It is awful the rate at which the water table is going down in LaPaz county or anywhere along the Colorado. This isn't any different really than what United fruit does in South America. Water is getting to be a serious issue. Some new housing developments have no water source and all water has to be trucked.
Here rises the water Hoax bullshit.
How much water is there on, in, and above the Earth?
"It is HQ high octane feed."
Yep. I thought I was pretty hot stuff back in January 2000, going into the hay business. I had the right idea but man what a lot to learn. We were the first kids in North America to buy a 400 series (410 Vario) Fendt...
I had a buyer from the ME visit. I was very flattered but it didn't take long to realize I didn't have what he was looking for, protein levels north of 20%!!! (You're right about the water too!)
Here's a couple hay/Fendt vids I like:
Old Manor Farm Haymaking:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1pmcWlluoY
Two Fendts ploughing together
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PB0VfVfdbvg
Both have beautiful music, as do the following:
Farming The Palouse in the 30's (which is when Fendt started building 'grundschleppers'):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXgpAkzl7iQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qq0ou-4u5Y
Are you still in the hay business? I've heard it's rough.
We need to pelletize cattle
Back in the early 70s one of the Forbes' was stating that the US's policy should be to use up everyone else's oil first.
That's why Fracking and NGO'S created an abundance of Natural Gas. They subsidized themselves into a zero sum game before the market gained traction. Liberalisation to create a mindset got caught in free market mechanism. When people say fuck off, they mean it.
Watch the MicroShite and Google companies get hit for forcing crap down the throats of consumers.