Back in September, we posted Riverview Dairy drawing down Arizona's aquifers, based on Draining Arizona: Residents say corporate mega-farms are drying up their wells, a report by NBC News.
In the Arizona Republic on Friday evening, Rob O'Dell and Ian James reported in These 7 industrial farm operations are draining Arizona's aquifers, and no one knows exactly how much they're taking.
Riverview Dairy's Arizona operations were included in the list of the seven industrial farms operations:
The giant dairy: Riverview near Willcox
With more than 37,000 acres in the Willcox area, Riverview LLP, a Minnesota dairy, may be the largest corporate farmer in the state and the farm with the most wells.
Started in 2014 with the purchase of the Faria Dairy on Kansas Settlement Road south of Willcox, it is building a huge expansion to the southeast called Turkey Creek Dairy.
Together the company plans to manage 150,000 cattle on both properties, said spokesman Kevin Wulf.
The new Turkey Creek farm has 14,000 “calf-huts” that look like large dog houses and are used to house calves that are immediately taken from their mothers after birth. The huts are arranged in rows that are longer than football fields.
Riverview produces the majority of the food for its cattle on its properties, growing wheat, silage corn and alfalfa. Records show the company has 420 wells. More than 90 of these wells are drilled to depths of more than 1,000 feet. Its deepest well is nearly 2,500 feet deep.
Wulf declined to say how much water is used annually. He said the company has reduced water usage by 25 percent since it purchased the land.
Wulf said the dairy would like to be a part of the water solution in Willcox and is supportive of water regulation in Arizona, though he couldn't say the exact rules he wants enacted.
"It has been pretty much a free-for-all," Wulf said. "There could be some things to be gained by having water regulated across the state."
Peggy Judd, a Cochise County supervisor, is a huge proponent of farming in the Willcox area, particularly the Riverview dairy. She said the companies didn’t invest millions of dollars into the area “in order to fail.”
“They don’t intend to ever leave,” Judd said. “They know there’s enough water.”
But the water pumped by commercial farms has helped dry up wells owned
But the water pumped by commercial farms has helped dry up wells owned by residents, who worry for their future. Riverview offered to contribute money toward a new water system being proposed for the residents close to its farm, Wulf said. But that won’t stop the pumping of the aquifer.
“This is a major, major deal for this county," said Claire Miller, who lives near several farms. With tens of thousands of cattle and the company insisting on growing all of the food on its land, "you are talking a lot of water,” she said.
As a former business owner, Miller said she can see both sides of the issue. But she said she is scared by the sheer amount of water being pumped out.
“If the damn state, pardon my French, and the county do not stop handing out commercial well permits like your Christmas candy, us homeowners are going to be screwed,” she said. “I told my husband I want to move. I want to sell, that’s it.”
For those who might have missed our September post, Riverview Dairy LLP has played an oversized role in Minnesota policy making, we noted some background about the role of Riverview in recent Minnesota political history:
Riverview Dairy
It's fascinating to see Riverview Dairy called a corporate farm in the national media. We began to pay attention to the LLP (the structure allows the operation to slip under Minnesota's corporate farm law) in posts such as MN12A: Does Backer want to strip citizens of ability to ask MPCA for environmental studies?.
Indeed, that's exactly what Riverview, Backer and their pals were after--and got--in eliminating the Citizens Board of the MPCA, as MPR's Elizabeth Dunbar reported in MN lawmakers pull the plug on pollution-fighting citizens' panel.
Ironically, the Dunbar piece is illustrated with a photo of Thief River Falls' Excel Dairy; the caption notes:
The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency's Citizens' Board has weighed in on many agriculture decisions over the years, including the Excel Dairy case, in which the board denied to reissue the Thief River Falls dairy a permit after it was declared a public health nuisance.
In Dairy operation to reopen, the Jamestown Sun reported:
The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency Citizen's Board today in St. Paul will hear the case to allow Excel Dairy, a rural Thief River Falls mega-dairy, to once again fill its barns and produce milk.
The dairy has been closed and empty of cows since January 2009, when the state filed air quality regulation violations against the dairy and its parent company, the Dairy Dozen. Earlier this month, Excel filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, but plans to re-open as soon as possible, said company owner/manager Rick Milner. . . .
Millner is one of several investors of a dairy farm conglomerate based in Veblen, S.D., that has had six dairy operations in recent years in South Dakota, North Dakota and Minnesota. Environmental violations connected to manure pits have occurred at the two farms near Veblen in recent years, as well as the Five-Star Dairy near Milnor, N.D.
Five-Star also filed for Chapter 11 protection in federal bankruptcy court earlier this month, but remains in operation.
One of the Veblen dairy farms also filed Chapter 11 this month, Millner said.
The company's other dairy farm near Veblen was placed into receivership earlier this year in the hands of a Minnesota agricultural lender, according to news reports.
The chronology can be found in 2011's Dairy drama: A timeline at AgWeek, which includes the acquisition of the Veblen dairy by Riverview. It's as if there's a circle here.
Riverview also starred in our post, From Land Stewardship Project: U economist says help is disservice to many dairy farmers:
Rural Communities & Family Farming Under Attack
Here is an example of how corporate interests and big ag are working against rural communities and family farmers at the legislature. On Feb. 26, the Senate Ag Policy and Finance Committees met for a special joint hearing to overview the state of agriculture in Minnesota.
Dr. Marin Bozic, a dairy economist at the University of Minnesota, testified “on behalf of Minnesota Milk, and as well as [his] employer,” the U of M. Incredibly, Dr. Bozic said, “I anticipate out of 3,000 dairy farms left in the state, probably over 80 percent are last generation dairies… We are going to see a number of dairy farmers that are no longer competitive… We would be doing them a disservice by offering some handouts that would prolong their hope but really there is nothing there to hope for.” He then lifted up Riverview Dairy, an 8,000-cow dairy in Morris, Minn., as the prime example of what type of operation our state resources should be focused on. (Watch or listen to his testimony, which starts at 1:06:15.)
That's from the Land Stewardship Project. It's curious to read over a year later when dairy farmers are struggling. Who knows that a dairy economist at the University of Minnesota and Minnesota Milk, said such things?
And who knew that Arizona's groundwater was being sent to giant dairies in Minnesota and South Dakota in the concentrated form of heifers? My, my.
We'll be curious to see how Riverview and other industrial agriculture operations exploit sympathy for small family farmers in order to gain more advantages over them in policy making in in the coming sessions in St. Paul and Washington D.C. Minnesotans concerned about protecting aquifers and groundwater should be especially vigilant.
Screenshot: "The new Turkey Creek farm has 14,000 “calf-huts” that look like large dog houses and are used to house calves that are immediately taken from their mothers after birth. The huts are arranged in rows that are longer than football fields." From the video about in These 7 industrial farm operations are draining Arizona's aquifers, and no one knows exactly how much they're taking. Via Arizona Republic.
If you appreciate our posts and original analysis, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post. Those wishing to make a small ongoing monthly contribution should click on the paypal subscription button.
Or you can contribute via this link to paypal; use email [email protected] as recipient.
Comments