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.
(15 votes)
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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.
Sadly, no. I smiled when I came across that Old Manor video because that is what our operation would have resembled today. We were marketing to the horsey crowd who largely prefer small rectangulars.
Divorce. The meanest business of all. Lost all that but eventually won the fight for custody...
Fool that I am, I still go over and make the foolish bitch some round bales each summer LOL
Enjoyed those videos. Thanks for posting.
Ran into this one. It reminded me of the time I spent with my grandparents on their farm in Iowa.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBiBcFNFdxg
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.
Oh, gee. It's not a national security issue, is it? We worry about bombing weddings in the middle east, when we should be defending our homeland. What's the difference if it's taken by invasion or by purchase if the end result is the same? We no longer have it for our use either way.
Fuck California for not building a half dozen DESAL plants (like starting 20+ years ago). For fucks sake they waste billions on illegals... and sock away NOTHING for their economic futures. Fuck those assholes in CA.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZgBhyU4IvQ
So... Who is selling their land to the Saudis and other Gulf nations? They are the real problem.
So what? What is the problem?
Hmmm... Interesting tactic. Apply the same tactic to oil just buy the land and drill...
Save the shale until the Saudi oil is gone.
Difficult to find land with intact mineral rights in Texas. Different laws in different states.
It doesn't take much to upset Americans does it? Just mention something like..."Hey those fricken Arabs are using up our water".
Well lets look at the facts in a different way....
This story is about 12,000 acres being irrigated...yeah, that made me mad also. But there are 55 million acres of irrigated farmland in the US. Most of it is producing food to be exported. A lot of it also grows corn, and hay for Arab cows.
This land is also lowering the aquifiers, so why isn't anyone pissed off about that also?
Someday they will. However, with such a large percentage of people on perscription drugs, probably not soon enough.
The Internationalists that rule over us in DC do not care. In fact, they like stuff like this. Makes us more interlinked and more impossible to remain a free and sovereign nation.
Ah that'll be the Al Kharj oasis. Spent many pleasant afternoons driving round that. Al Marai is the largest dairy in the world.
The huge sink hole at Ayn Dhil used to be full of water in the 1960s but owing to astronomical extraction they sank the water table to nothing.
When I asked an RSAF pilot once about this he calmly trold me they'll dig another one.
Don't let 'em near your water!
No problem, just nationalize the farmland, like they did the oil zones not so many years ago. Karma is a bitch, then you have to go back to fucking camels.
They bought land legally in the US and are using its water resources, because Saudi Arabia has very little water. What is the problem here exactly?
It's a vital fucking resource and there is a major drought, dickface. Corporations are raping American resources in manic fury, sucking every last ounce of anything with value. That is the problem.
I say La Paz county better WTFU.
The straw that wakes the lion. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sn4mVDtqi7g
Oh Really? As if Americans have never done anything remotely similar in the Americas, Africa or Asia...
How does it taste, your own poison?
Dicking around, not minding the store, bickering, leaving the door open to strangers is never a good idea, whether we are talking about a house, a business or a nation of people.
Banks have been at America's jugular for a very long time. The people who have gutted this wonderful country are paid to do so. The Agenda 21 is bulldozing through the local level and changing the whole way of life. And the consequence of corporate cockhold on the politicians through a sniper or a payoff. Without an honest media, how are people supposed to know what is going on? Do you think they will pick it up through telepathy? This is a well thought through, centuries long plan to destroy America and who would benefit from that is not the Americans. Wallets decide and if you want to eat, you do as you are told. Thanks to American UNIONS, we got the kids out of the factories, the miners out of the shafts, and a decent life worth living. The indians were no fucking angels. They stole, raped, killed, cheated. Good, bad and ugly.
Americans care. And I have worked with them long enough to know that when they realize what their government has done to their country, they will be furious. Hence the rush to get the guns. Politicians homes in every town in America are going to be surrounded by the people who elected them, and HOW COULD YOU LET THIS HAPPEN won't even matter, it will be FIX THIS OR ELSE. Because it's a dead end up ahead.
Where are you from? Russia? Banks are Washing, Rinsing and Spin Dry, and the next country will be Russing eventually unless the source of this madness is dealt with.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6zyUDepETU - These are the Americans I know. In this show clip from a small town, this is an example of 300 million people.
you're freakin' kidding me. whining about the Saudis exploing our resources and sending the goods back home. Can you say United Fruit Company? I knew that you could. it takes a lotta damn gaul for the biggest exploiter the world has ever seen to snivel about someone else doing it to them. If the Saudis were just buying American alfalfa would you still be crying, Krieger? They would get the water either way. Is America going to stop exporting agricultural products to keep our water at home? The Saudis just paid their money up front and grew it themselves. welcome to free market capitalism. This article is totally asinine, especially coming from someone with "Liberty" in their title.
Watch how fast predators-DBA-government (at all levels) can "change rules", add regulations, increase property and other taxes, and so forth. 2 years max.
Don't the Saudi owners have to pay property taxes?
This is a fear-mongering article. The land was being used as farmland before a private foreign company bought it. No one was complaining about the water use then. So, it would be okay for an American owner to grow and ship alfalfa over to Saudi Arabia, but if the Saudi's buy up the production chain we have to get all worked up. They bought less than 12,000 acres. OH NO. This is a free market. If they have the cash they can buy in it.
ON another note, the Saudi's oil company may be coming up for sale. Get back at them by buying some shares. You show em!
Yet no one complained about the Arabs buying US ports, banks, news agencies, oil companies, Hollywood, presidential elections?
Dr. Burry is a genious.