{"id":1320229,"date":"2020-05-27T23:16:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-28T05:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/dont-hurt-farmers-to-save-the-colorado-river\/"},"modified":"2020-05-27T23:16:00","modified_gmt":"2020-05-28T05:16:00","slug":"dont-hurt-farmers-to-save-the-colorado-river","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/dont-hurt-farmers-to-save-the-colorado-river\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t hurt farmers to save the Colorado River"},"content":{"rendered":"
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No one denies it: Over-consumption of water and extreme drought caused by climate change are realities driving the Colorado River into crisis. But some solutions are better than others.<\/p>\n

Former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt suggested recently in an opinion (Writers on the Range.org) that \u201cretiring\u201d 10% \u2013 some 300,000 acres \u2013 of irrigated agriculture would save 1 million acre-feet of the Colorado River. Secretary Babbitt wants the federal government to pay farmers in both the Lower and Upper Colorado River Basins to dry up their cropland.<\/p>\n

The imbalance on the Colorado River needs to be addressed, and agriculture, as the biggest water user in the basin, needs to be part of a fair solution. But drying up vital food-producing land is a blunt tool. It will damage our local food-supply chains and bring decline to rural communities that have developed around irrigated agriculture.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s look at the river\u2019s problems. First, Secretary Babbitt minimizes the challenge, as the overuse of the river\u2019s system is even greater than 1 million acre-feet. The flow is so diminished that the end of the line the Colorado River Delta hardly receives any water.<\/p>\n

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