Hungry for Change: Borderlands Food & Water in - Southwest ...

The grocery’s general manager Kelley Kriner lamented
that “sometimes we get product that was raised in Green
Valley, Arizona, then processed in California, and sold to
us through a national distributor. That’s silly.”
On a larger scale, the seven Whole Foods stores in Arizona
do feature special displays of vegetables raised at
Sunizona Family Farms, a complex of 12, one-and-a-halfacre
greenhouses near Willcox. Nearby, an even larger
bank of greenhouses is managed by EuroFresh Farms,
which considers itself “America’s largest greenhouse,”
covering 318 acres. But EuroFresh primarily has its sights
set on distant markets across the U.S. and into Canada.
South Arizona’s connection with Mexico does not offer
much reassurance. When I interviewed Philip Ostrom,
CEO of Patagonia Orchards, at his facility near the border
in Rio Rico, he noted that the Nogales area is the largest
produce port in the world, with 250-300 warehouses and
400 companies operating near the border crossing. Yet,
when the firm—a “marketing agent” for growers—wants
to make citrus juice, it has to ship organic fruits to
California to be squeezed and packaged. This is because
these distant firms can handle larger orders than his
own juicing line, and in part because he is required by
law to pasteurize the juice in order to sell it commercially—a
task he cannot accomplish at his own processing
center. To complicate this picture, there are also
indications that drug cartels are trying to take over
produce farms in Mexico, I learned from a wholesaler
in Minnesota.
Southern Arizona growers also mentioned their concerns
that water can be difficult or expensive to obtain
in this region. “Wells here [in Kansas Settlement, near
Willcox] have to be dug to 400 feet, because the groundwater
only recharges when the snow melts,” Josh Koehn
of Chiracahua Pasture Raised Meats in Kansas Settlement,
told me. “Some of my neighbors routinely run out
of water.”
Roxanne Garcia, manager of the Tucson farmers’ market,
agreed that “one huge issue is water.” Few growers
in the Tucson area have access to water. Moreover,
water rates in urban areas are expensive. Most new
farms are installing underground irrigation pipes to
minimize evaporation.
Although Arizona has been a state for 100 years, agricultural
tradition is sparse. Adam Valdivia of Sleeping Frog
Farms (now 75 acres near Benson) told me that when he
launched the farm with three partners, they found little
multi-generational knowledge about raising produce in
the neighborhood. The partners had to teach themselves.
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But it’s important to note: Southern Arizona does not
lack farms. There are a total of 2,350 farms in the border
region I studied (including Cochise, Graham, Greenlee,
Pima and Santa Cruz Counties). This is 15 percent of
Arizona’s farms. Main products are pecans, forage for
livestock, corn, cattle, calves and cotton. Primarily, these
products are raw materials that require further processing
before reaching the consumer. As a result, most of
these products are destined for distant markets, not for
Southern Arizona consumers.
I saw a disturbing trend when I analyzed the farm incomes
generated by selling these commodities. I learned
that Southern Arizona farmers and ranchers had sold, on
average, $300 million of food commodities each year over
the most recent 11 years, 1999-2009. But on average, these
farmers had spent $320 million each year to produce
these products. That’s an average loss to the farms, and
to the region, of $20 million each year.
Indeed, there was only one year during that period—in
2004—when farmers earned more from selling crops and
livestock than they spent to produce them. Farmers
Regional heritage breeds: Navajo-Churro sheep on Arizona farm | Photo Gary Paul Nabhan
squeaked by with the help of $21 million per year of income
from renting land and $12 million in federal subsidies.
But the subsidies only covered farmers who raised
crops such as corn or cotton. I was startled to learn that
these federal subsidies, though limited, had been a more
important source of net farm income than actual
farm production.
So, how did these farmers pull through? What has kept
farmers farming? Often, someone in the family held an
off-farm job, perhaps to stabilize the family’s income, or
to collect health benefits.
While farming at a net loss, Southern Arizona farmers
spent at least $200 million outside the region each year
buying the essential inputs they need to farm. This included
fertilizer, machinery, seeds, young livestock, fuel,
interest on loans and labor. To put this another way: regardless
whether or not farmers gained or lost money,
they shipped millions of dollars away from the region
each year. The region lost, even if individual farms
thrived. For me, this fact reinforced the economic value
of producing fertility and machinery in a region.
Meanwhile, each year Southern Arizona consumers buy
$3 billion worth of food that is produced far from border
country. All told, my data showed that when farmers produce
commodities for distant sale and when Southern
Arizona residents consume foods produced on distant
farms, the region shipped about $3.2 billion away every
year. It is a shocking loss, more than 10 times the value
of all the food products raised by farmers in the region
in an average year.
This disconnect from farming helped create dismal
health outcomes in the state. Fifty-eight percent of
Arizona residents are either overweight (32 percent) or
obese (26 percent). One of every 12 state residents has
been diagnosed with diabetes. According to some reports,
the diabetes rate among Latino and Native American
residents in this region may be as high as 55 percent. The
medical costs for treating conditions related to diabetes
totaled $716 million per year for Southern Arizona
alone—far more than farmers earn by selling crops and
livestock. Statewide, diabetes causes $3.8 billion in medical
costs per year.
Only one-quarter of state residents report that they eat
the recommended five fruits and vegetables each day—
the minimum suggested by health professionals for
maintaining a healthy life. About half of state residents
reported that they exercised adequately.
Still, there was a silver lining to the clouds in the desert
sky. My data also showed that if Southern Arizona consumers
spent fewer than $5 each week buying food directly
from farms in the region, farmers would earn an
additional $287 million in farm income—that’s nearly
what farmers currently earn, selling commodities
destined for distant buyers. A strong market exists for
food, if only the resources could be marshaled to help
existing farmers raise food for their neighbors and grow
new farmers.
…if Southern Arizona consumers spent fewer than $5 each week buying food directly from
farms in the region, farmers would earn an additional $287 million in farm income…
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Atrophied infrastructure: Historic Bran Duster at Ures Sonora flour mill | Photo Gary Paul Nabhan
These data invite the CFB to consider even more expansive
roles for itself, and for its partners. Could CFB farms
ramp up production of food for the 400,000 Southern
Arizonans who live below poverty? Could food bank
trucks help convey food from area farms to low-income
residents, and perhaps even carry food from local farms
to mainstream grocery stores? Could the compost operation
at the Marana Heritage Farm expand into a commercial
source of fertility? What sort of food processing,
warehousing, cold storage, freezer space, transport and
other facilities are needed to reach this goal? What role
could schools, colleges, hospitals and other institutional
purchasers play in helping nurture these new farms and
facilities by buying food locally? Would clinics and hospitals
begin to prescribe healthy foods to their clients, in
an effort to reduce health care costs?
The memory of the disruptions of food supplies during
both Hurricane Katrina and the recent outbreaks of
foodborne illness came to mind as my return flight took
me back home. Now is certainly the time to act.