© 2013 Michael Swickard, Ph.D. An Old West saying goes: Whiskey is for drinking and water is for fighting. Well, New Mexico is in a fight for its very life and it is about water. There is not enough water for New Mexico’s Agriculture Industry. Without Agriculture jobs then the human capital of farm and ranch production leave the state, perhaps, forever.
New Mexico is not New Mexico without Agriculture. Without water there is no Green Chile, or at least no New Mexico Green Chile. Water talks and everything else walks.
While there may be enough water for coffee making and toilet flushing; it will not be enough to keep New Mexico Agriculture viable since Agriculture runs on lots of water. We are in the fourth year of a severe drought. Even in good years New Mexico gets ten or less inches of moisture. Native plants are fine but it is not enough for farmers who measure their water needs in acre feet.
During droughts runoff is negligible. So the majority of the water is pumped. As water is increasingly pumped there is a net-loss of water from aquifers. Pumping must slow down or stop because those aquifers are dwindling, not to mention the lawsuits from Texas trying to take the last of our water. Texas could own all of our Agriculture water because of their lawsuits. Then what?
At risk are all non-native trees such as the pecan orchards which must be watered or die. Also, when the farmland goes fallow, there is a risk the farmers will just quit the business. Alfalfa is grown, harvested and transported in New Mexico by an army of highly skilled workers. Stop planting that crop and those people and machines move somewhere else.
Connected to those problems are the livestock producers who depend on alfalfa to supplementally feed their grazing animals. With less acres planted over the last decade the price of alfalfa has risen dramatically. Ranchers have had to go to slaughter with their animals because they could not afford to feed them. With good feed prices the legacy livestock can economically stay on the ranches to create the next generation of New Mexico livestock. These animals form the basis of our livestock future. However, when cattle operations have to sell off their herds, the years of research developing the right animals for our New Mexico climate is lost.
Likewise, high feed costs endanger the milk and cheese producers who feel the increased cost of feeding milk cows. Further, when New Mexico Agriculture stops shipping food there are two problems: first, the money from these Agricultural operations is lost to New Mexico, and, secondly, we no longer control our food supply. Yes, we can buy food from other American producers, but increasingly we see our food coming from areas of the world that do not say, God Bless America. Bells should ring warning us of danger.
In the just completed 60-day session of the New Mexico legislature there was no action on the fact that New Mexico is running out of water for Agriculture. It was hardly mentioned nor was there any movement toward a solution.
New Mexico must find new sources of water including desalinating water. Importantly, the water has to be financially viable so that crops and animals can compete in the marketplace with other states and countries.
One plan is to obtain new generation nuclear power plants to pump from other areas of our country and/or desalinate our brackish water. In the Middle East the water is almost entirely desalinated.
The problem with nuclear energy for New Mexico is that politically the fear mongers will not accept that France uses nuclear power almost exclusively and without harm. It may be easier to build a national champion football program at NMSU than a new generation nuclear power plant to power the next generation of water.
The leaders of New Mexico must jump on the water wagon quickly or be remembered as the leaders who allowed our Agriculture Industry to end. It really will happen. Hope you like rice because soon China will control what you eat.
What about our Green Chile? It will come from a bunch of other places, but not New Mexico.
Dr. Michael Swickard is co-host of radio talk show News New Mexico 6 to 9 a.m. Monday - Friday on a number of New Mexico radio stations and through streaming. Email: michael@swickard.com
