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False claims about alfalfa continue, says commentary

Posted by: Maven on June 23, 2009 at 12:23 pm

From the Western Farm Press, this commentary by Aaron Kiess, Executive Director of the California Alfalfa & Forage Association:

CAFA’s 24-page booklet, “Alfalfa, Wildlife and the Environment”, is a valuable resource that has been an educational tool and an authoritative information source for defending California’s largest acreage crop. The scientific information in the booklet has been used by some alfalfa growers to defend water use and stave off a large reduction in allotments. That aspect of the booklet recently came to mind when a CAFA member in the low desert asked for help once again to make the case for alfalfa and hopefully keep from losing more irrigation water.

The “Alfalfa, Wildlife and the Environment” booklet can be viewed and downloaded at the CAFA Web site. As mentioned in a number of Western Farm Press columns over the past eight years, the “Water Story” chapter is often referred to, especially in a drought year or when alfalfa is singled out for the amount of water it consumes.

What makes the water chapter and the entire booklet a valuable resource is its credibility, thanks to the authors who contributed their expertise. Nearly the entire booklet was authored by University of California forage specialists and a forage specialist for the USDA-Agricultural Research Service in Minnesota.

The booklet is the cornerstone of CAFA’s educational efforts, and a two-page companion piece is now being developed to provide an overview and focus on a number if misconceptions that plague the alfalfa industry. Over the years we’ve heard the same complaints and misinformation that are repeated so often they become reality rather than myth.

Read more of this commentary by clicking here. Download the pdf file of the brochure, Alfalfa, Wildlife & the Environment, from the California Alfalfa & Forage Association by clicking here.

June 23, 2009 · Filed Under Agriculture

Comments

One Response to “False claims about alfalfa continue, says commentary”

  1. dfb on June 24th, 2009 12:48 am

    I’d like to see a formal inquiry by a neutral body (SWRCB?) with real evidence presented. It is time to put this debate to rest. An industry sponsored brochure is not ideal in this regard.

    As acknowledged in the brochure, alfalfa farming is inherently an easy target because of how much water it uses.

    Alfalfa farming uses 12% of water consumed in California. Each acre of alfalfa requires an average of 5 acre feet of water per year (the brochure says 2 to 7 acre feet). By comparison, an acre foot can support about 4 people in an urban setting, including landscaping, for one year.

    Farmers who grow alfalfa argue that alfalfa is actually more efficient than other crops with comparisons such as: “303 pounds [of alfalfa], vs. 109 pounds for rice and 31 pounds for almonds, per inch of applied water.” http://westernfarmpress.com/news/farming_tide_water_issues/ The problem I have with such arguments is they compare an item humans cannot directly consume to two other items we do. The CAFA brochure makes the same mistake. Scientific studies should determine the amount of human consumable food stuff, such as beef or milk, attributable to each pound of alfalfa and through that per inch of water. Without reliable scientific studies it sounds like growing alfalfa wastes water, at least to most non-ag folks. The CAFA brochure does not go into such detail and uses a variety of different measures of water (inches per year, acre feet per year, per unit, etc).

    The basic question SWRCB should ask is whether alfalfa farming during a drought is a reasonable use of water. Moreover, I’d really like to see it create a set of objective standards which can be used to measure and balance each type of use, not just alfalfa farming.

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