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Originally Posted by delts145
Excellent points Always Sunny. Your points and all points regarding precious limited resources of water. A couple of agri-related concerns are worth taking a deep dive into Utah's agricultural future. Just to touch lightly on a multi-faceted and complicated path, there are a few concerns that I have when dealing with Alfalfa hay farming that bear further indepth study and wading through the weeds, and not taking a meat cleaver to the subject(no pun intended).
I remember how many of us have lamented on several occasions over the years in this forum regarding the continued demise of Utah's once excellent Dairy Farming community. This of course as much of what used to be open land along the Wasatch Front has been swallowed up by Utah's hyper-growth population advent of the past twenty-five years. Now even parts of the greater metro such as Heber Valley are losing their cherished tradition of Dairies. The reason that this is concerning is the fact that the survival of Dairies in Utah is integrally and laterally connected to Utah's Alfalfa farming. Alfalfa is the essential feed ingredient for Dairy and Beef cattle. Currently, Utah exports 29% of its Alfalfa and retains in-state 71% of this feed product. Of course, we need to take a serious look if Utah should be raising alfalfa for anyone other than its own population. Also, another interesting factor is that there is a reason why the more arid Western/Southwestern States of the U.S. raise such an inordinate percentage amount of alfalfa feed. The Western U.S. States such as Arizona, Utah, etc. are not only considered some of the highest quality alfalfa production in the world but the ability to raise alfalfa is ideally farmed on the more arid climate cycle of the Western U.S.
My question where I would want far more information provided is this. Should Utah sacrifice its internal high-quality protein Dairy and Beef Industry product that could be essential to its future ability to provide a sustainable protein product for its own Utah citizens? Perhaps, it is even more egregious that California has been allowed to completely vacate its responsibility to provide critical in-state water capture and retention infrastructure over the past decades. Yet at the same time California has been allowed to grab from its neighboring Western States far more of its allotted share of the Colorado River than legally allowed. This is while the Intermountain and Southwest States have looked away to their peril, especially now that the West's population growth and available water resources have reached a critically unsustainable point. Hopefully, recent pressure will allow Utah the enforced legal right to refuse this practice to continue
Another question worth exploring is whether Utah should sacrifice its in-state Dairy Industry for say California and Arizona to cultivate such a high amount of product such as Almond Orchards, which also demand such a ludicrous amount of Colorado water. I love almonds but maybe Arizona and California need to better prioritize their in-state water storage infrastructure (especially California). The amount of high-quality agricultural and drinking water that California wastes and or allows to just empty into the Pacific Ocean is criminal. This has been a facet of the green religious cult gone amuck over the past several decades and Utah should not have to pay the price for California vacating its responsibilities when it comes to water retention and storage. Sure, all Western States need to do a better job of prioritizing their water capturing and retention infrastructure, but California has been particularly the most negligent these past few decades. Again, it's particularly galling considering how much of the Colorado they use instead of implementing needed water retention.
Excuse my lengthy diatribe. So yes, Utah should better manage its water retention and distribution, as well as improve the management of its beef and dairy industry. Should Utah be exporting 29% of its alfalfa product to customers such as the CCP slave state? Consider that alfalfa hay farming is essential to the beef and dairy industry. These multi-generational farms are much more than just a fond tradition, but also a critical component to the quality of Utah's future table product. (Note: Utah's Lamb and wool production is also worth consideration). There is nothing more critical than the survival of Utah's internal supply of food and water products for its own citizens.
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I admittedly would be totally fine with agriculture and ranching to disappear from Utah (not popular opinion, I know). Regardless, with lab grown meat and milk seemingly on the horizon, I am not sure Utah is in charge of its future as many might think.
Another unpopular opinion, but on the other side of the political spectrum, I am very supportive of piping water into Utah. The idea of water scarcity is a political, not a technical problem. Whether that would be bringing it from the Snake, Great Lakes, Mississippi, Missouri, ocean or some combination, is just a matter of people agreeing. If that became a reality, then farm and ranch to people's heart's content.
If Utah wanted to do something that would change the state forever, then piping in ocean water to the GSL to create a lower salinity and more recreationally appealing body of water would be amazing. You could control the water level as to avoid vast areas of rotting life. Antelope, Fremont and Stansbury Islands would be valuable land for recreating and/or living. The northern half could be used for mineral extraction (maintaining the dike) to make it more politically feasible (for Conservatives). The wetlands along Davis and Weber Counties could be actively managed to make them more ecologically sustainable.
It would allow Utah Lake to retain more of its water to deepen the lake and reduce turbidity and algal blooms. Utah Lake could possibly provide freshwater to Utah County residents if enough could be retained by dredging.
Lastly, an outlet would need to be dug to allow outflow where it would spread over the hundreds of square miles of the Salt Flats to evaporate, which also maintains the salt crust of the Flats.
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i2theSKY, thanks for posting this. Here it is in a smaller format. I agree, Worthington also makes for a great contribution to the skyline.
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