Saudi alfalfa sparks tension in Arizona’s Sonoran Desert
In an arid pocket of Arizona’s rural southwest, thirsty tufts of alfalfa are guzzling unlimited amounts of groundwater — only to become fodder for dairy cows some 8,000 miles east. This Sonoran Desert field of green, cultivated by a Saudi Arabian dairy giant, has become a flashpoint among residents, who resent the Middle Eastern company’s unbridled — and steeply discounted — usage of a dwindling regional resource. But because the Vicksburg, Ariz., property is just one of many farms in the neighborhood growing water-intensive grains, it is also turning the spotlight on legal loopholes in state groundwater laws that enable such use in the first place.