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Idaho Farmers: “We’re All Going to Fail”
Independent Sentinel ^ | June 10, 2024 | M DOWLING

Posted on 06/11/2024 6:20:28 AM PDT by Red Badger

Idaho farmers are in danger of having their water shut off. The water shutoff order affects half a million acres of farmland and about 6,400 people who use the water. Without water, their farmland is worthless.

The state of Idaho has put a water curtailment order, which is basically a water shutoff order on literally a half million acres of farmland. ‌ Many farming this land have already invested in thousands of acres, thousands of dollars per acre, to grow potatoes. It’s too late for them to survive without water.

Why is the water being cut off?

Essentially, this curtailment represents a battle of wills between the Idaho Department of Water Resources and the groundwater districts in eastern Idaho.

Idaho’s waterways are owned by the State as a public trust resource. A water right is the right to divert the state’s public waters and put them to beneficial use. A water right is a “usufructuary right,” meaning a right to use, as opposed to a right to possess.

There isn’t enough water to go around, so senior water users say they want the junior water users (farmers) cut off because they haven’t stuck with the plan. Junior water users are in desperate straits, but senior water users have primary legal rights.

The problem arose because of a difference in how water usage is configured.

If the officials don’t come up with a solution almost immediately, the crops will die.

Farmer Connie Christenson told Local News 8 that unless there is an emergency end to the curtailment order, the water cut-off won’t just mean the end to their potato crop but potentially six generations of farming.

“We wouldn’t be able to take that kind of a hit and continue,” said Christensen. “I mean, maybe you can get a bank to carry you, but it would be crazy for the banks to carry us when we don’t know if we’re ever going to be able to irrigate again.”

The Governor’s office believes there will be an agreement.

Farmer Trevor Belknap explains at the beginning of the video. “I operate a family farm, a fifth-generation family farm in the Snake River Valley of eastern Idaho. I just wanted to visit with you for a minute about the impacts of the water curtailment order that’s been issued by Director Weaver from the Outer Department of Water Resources. ‌

“The situation in which we find ourselves is about as bad as it gets. Not only will we be out of business, but many other businesses will be highly impacted, and you, as my friends and neighbors, will also be impacted because we’re so interconnected.

“If the agriculture economy in eastern Idaho fails, which it surely will if this containment order is in place, it can remain in place; we’ll dry up and blow away just like it did back in the dust bowl of the 30s.

“Banks will fail. Equipment dealers, car dealers, gas stations, and grocery stores all rely on the ag economy that’s here in eastern Idaho.

“The children in our schools, how many of them belong to families who work in some form of ag industry in eastern Idaho? It’s horrible. And we need to fix it. “And I would propose to you that it is not a water problem; it’s a management problem because we have water. Reservoirs are full. The mountains are covered in snow. The river’s been flowing well. ‌ So why now?

“Why, after we’ve planted our crops, we have crops in the ground that are already growing? Now, in the middle of June, they pull a curtailment order to say you must cease pumping water.

“The cost is huge. An acre of potatoes costs upward of $4,000 an acre to grow. “How will that ever be recovered? They will not grow without water. And what will that do to everyone else that’s reliant upon us in this area and the state of Idaho? “What will the counties do for roads and bridges, police departments, ambulances, hospitals that rely on tax the tax base. Property like this will become worthless. Without water, the land doesn’t have any value here.”

Watch:

VIDEOS AT LINK.............


TOPICS: Agriculture; Business/Economy; Food; Gardening
KEYWORDS: agriculture; farmers; farmland; farms; food; idaho; idahofarmers; potatoes; ranchers; thewaronfood; war; waronfarmers; waronfarms; waronfood; waronranchers; water
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To: Red Badger

In California, it would be the land itself that is valuable - either for housing development or its value as farm land - some of the most valuable land in the world b/c it can produce two or three crops/year b/c of year round good weather.


41 posted on 06/11/2024 7:03:24 AM PDT by Bon of Babble (You Say You Want a Revolution?)
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To: Bulwyf

I may have misunderstood your comment. Perhaps you were being sarcastic. If so, ignore my previous post to you.


42 posted on 06/11/2024 7:04:26 AM PDT by UCANSEE2 (Lost my tagline on Flight MH370)
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To: faucetman; All

Good link...even more info.:

https://www.aol.com/idaho-doesn-t-water-shortage-100000956.html

https://idwr.idaho.gov/water-rights/overview/

https://idwr.idaho.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/legal/CM-DC-2010-001/CM-DC-2010-001-20221214-Final-Order-Curtailing-Ground-Water-Rights-Junior-to-May-31-1989.pdf


43 posted on 06/11/2024 7:08:00 AM PDT by Drago
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To: unread
Just shut the heck up and eat your bugs... /s \/ cJu9CYp
44 posted on 06/11/2024 7:08:21 AM PDT by cuz1961
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To: metmom
Potatoes are easy enough to grow and can be grown in containers.

I can just see the children sitting around a glass jar and telling other children how, in a few months, they'll have one serving of french fries.

45 posted on 06/11/2024 7:10:32 AM PDT by UCANSEE2 (Lost my tagline on Flight MH370)
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To: READINABLUESTATE
The Idaho Department of Water Resources has potatoes for brains.

They must not be watering them.

46 posted on 06/11/2024 7:15:44 AM PDT by UCANSEE2 (Lost my tagline on Flight MH370)
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To: Red Badger

The goal is global famine.

They globalist elites think they will be exempt.


47 posted on 06/11/2024 7:19:26 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (The worst thing about censorship is █████ ██ ████ ████ ████ █ ███████ ████. FJB.)
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To: Red Badger; Carry_Okie

bkmk


48 posted on 06/11/2024 7:22:21 AM PDT by sauropod ("This is a time when people reveal themselves for who they are." James O'Keefe Ne supra crepidam)
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To: eastexsteve

Storing food isn’t all that difficult either.

There are lots of options, a root cellar being the easiest.

I also can and dehydrate. Most of it after getting the supplies, is a time commitment, more than particularly hard work.


49 posted on 06/11/2024 7:34:34 AM PDT by metmom (He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus…)
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To: Thank You Rush

“And SENIOR water users are WHO/WHAT?”

Mostly farmers who claim the junior users cheated and used more water than their allotments.


50 posted on 06/11/2024 7:37:49 AM PDT by SaxxonWoods (Are you ready for Black Lives MAGA? It's coming.)
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To: SaxxonWoods

This isn’t the govt doing this. Colorado has the same setup. Senior water right users can use their allotments first, and if there’s no water left after they do so, the junior users don’t get water. If you cheat your water can be cut off. The only question here is, did the junior users cheat?


51 posted on 06/11/2024 7:45:32 AM PDT by SaxxonWoods (Are you ready for Black Lives MAGA? It's coming.)
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To: UCANSEE2

Not at all what I meant. I’m former infantry.


52 posted on 06/11/2024 7:46:36 AM PDT by Bulwyf
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To: Red Badger

WOW!!!! Good call. That’s crazy to think about.

Do think that just found that there’s lithium in the waste water from fracking, but fracking is verboten.


53 posted on 06/11/2024 7:50:44 AM PDT by qaz123
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To: Red Badger

Wow…thanks for this! The courts can shut down water 💦 access in my state if they deem it necessary. Nice to know!


54 posted on 06/11/2024 7:51:17 AM PDT by Jan_Sobieski (Sanctification)
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To: Red Badger

They love the insane impossible word , Sustainable , their Perpetual Motion for Stuff ,LOL


55 posted on 06/11/2024 8:02:44 AM PDT by butlerweave
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To: Jan_Sobieski; Red Badger

The government has way too much control over what we can and cannot do because who decides what is *necessary*?

The government.

And who can trust them? I sure don’t.


56 posted on 06/11/2024 8:05:30 AM PDT by metmom (He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus…)
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To: Red Badger

The purpose is the same as the lockdowns — to kill off the non-commie trash businesses. Stores then and now farms will be seized by state and sold off to “investors” who provide kickbacks to the politicos in charge of this crappola.


57 posted on 06/11/2024 8:05:52 AM PDT by bobbo666 (Baizuo, )
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To: bobbo666

Atlas Shrugged......................


58 posted on 06/11/2024 8:06:59 AM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
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To: Red Badger

59 posted on 06/11/2024 8:11:34 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Putin should skip ahead to where he kills himself in the bunker.)
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To: Red Badger

The proper word is evil. Some people just love to create destruction. They seldom say so and hide behind govt positions. Weaver is one.


60 posted on 06/11/2024 8:25:33 AM PDT by Seruzawa ("The Political left is the Garden of Eden of incompetence" - Marx the Smarter (Groucho))
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