Government-Subsidized Cotton Farms Are Sucking the Colorado River Dry

Not too many drought taradiddle have focused on cotton . As one of the thirstiest crop , it was long abandoned by many James Leonard Farmer in the region hard hit by unprecedented water scarceness . Except for one part of Arizona , where cotton wool bloom rebelliously , even today . Because here , the more cotton fiber fails , the more the US pay up farmer to keep growing it .

As part of ProPublica ’s new seriesKilling the Colorado , Abrahm Lustgarten and Naveena Sadasivam locomotion to Arizona , where cotton plant — an incredibly water intensive plant which has been historically arise in the moister Southeast — is the second most - constitute crop in the United States Department of State . Why incisively are James Leonard Farmer grow cotton in the desert?Because cotton husbandman are financially protected in a way that other farmers are n’t . In fact , they even get insurance on their fields which guarantees that they ’ll still make money — even when their craw fails .

Yep , the drought in this part of the country is essentially subsidized by the US authorities :

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The defrayment , part of the U.S. Farm Bill , are a legacy of Dust Bowl - geological era programs that live on today at the urging of the internal cotton third house and the indemnity manufacture . Similar subsidy put up corn , Elmer Rice , pale yellow and , indirectly , Medicago sativa — all of which also use good deal of water . But in Arizona one of the driest states in the res publica , it ’s cotton that has received the most federal aid , tipping the balance on farmers ’ decisions about what to plant .

Over the last 20 years , Arizona ’s Farmer have call for more than $ 1.1 billion in cotton subsidies , nine times more than the amount pay out for the next highest subsidized craw . In California , where cotton also find more support than most other crops , James Leonard Farmer received more than $ 3 billion in cotton aid .

I ’ve written a lot about theoutdated lawswhich are deem back reform in California . But this is perhaps the most backward of all the drought policy in the US . And the fact that it was explicitly drafted to help farmers after the Dust Bowl — by far the worst mood - related disaster the country has endure — is even more frustrative . The US government is really paying farmers todrain the Colorado River .

Dji Drone