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Should We Be Farming in the Desert?

Civil Eats

Yet carrots, cauliflower, sweet onions, honeydew, broccoli, and alfalfa all grow here, incongruous crops that spread across half a million acres of cultivated land. Ronald Leimgruber farms 3,500 of those acres. Through a pilot program, MWD pays the farmers leasing the land and the tribe up to $473 per acre.

Farming 112
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Colorado’s Groundwater Experiment

Civil Eats

But the valley’s irrigation outlook is dire: Water withdrawn by wells exceeds the amount of snowmelt refilling aquifers, and there are more claims to water rights than there is water in streams. But applying the same approach to water is tricky. The expanse is among the most densely irrigated regions on Earth.