There are a pair of articles by Alexei Barrionuevo in today’s New York Times that touch on issues very close to home here in western Kansas.
The first, Crop Rotation in the Grain Belt details the decline of wheat in the Plains states at the expense of corn and soybeans. A combination of government subsidies and genetic modifications have made corn and soy more profitable per acre than wheat over the past few decades. As a result America, which used to boast of being the world’s breadbasket, has seen its share of wheat exports shrink significantly over the same time frame.
The second article, For Kansas Farmers, Water Is a Vanishing Commodity recognizes the cost of the move to corn. Corn and soybeans require almost twice as much water as wheat to cultivate. Much of that water in western Kansas is pumped from the Ogallala aquifer. Because of rising energy costs (required for pumping groundwater) and declining groundwater supplies (where discharge exceeds recharge) this tradeoff is unsustainable in most parts of western Kansas.
Here is a very real issue that affects all of us here in western Kansas, either directly or indirectly. Geology (groundwater resources) plays and important role in any course of action we choose to take. What alternatives do we have? What choices should we make?