Irrigation Farming

In the arid West, why is this farm so small, having only 200 acres? What are the two purposes for which crops are grown?
Answers:

although the area is arid, water pumped from below the surface or brought from rivers allows irrigation to make the "desert bloom."
cash crops: sugar beets, potatoes, (soy)beans
fodder crops for the feed lot operation corn, alfalfa, and barley

Water is essential for irrigation agriculture in the Far West, but the USA as a whole has a very high water use per person and as a percent of total water resources, compared with other countries. Indeed, the earth has insufficient fresh water supplies to feed the world's population with the water-demanding diet of the USA.

Irrigation is essential for making California the leading agricultural state. The fast-growing and most profitable crops are high-value specialty crops: lettuce, grapes, avocados, peaches, plums, and strawberries. Growers of these crops also depend on cheap labor; 30-60 percent, depending on the crop, are illegal immigrants. Fruit and vegetable growers rely on a thriving black market in labor. While illegal immigrants are widely reviled and often depicted as welfare cheats, they are actually subsidizing the most important sector of the California economy. These and migrant agricultural workers are among the poorest paid workers in the USA. The average migrant is a 29-year male, born in Mexico, who earns less than $7,500 a year for 25 weeks of farm work. His life expectancy is 49 years. Source: Eric Schlosser, Reefer Madness (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2003).

Created by Ingolf Vogeler on 30 April 1996; last revised on 19 September 2005.