Posted on 06/28/2014 4:12:12 PM PDT by blueplum
JENSEN, UTAH — It’s easy to find the largest Chinese-owned hay farm in the United States. It sits 189 miles east of Salt Lake City, on a stunningly scenic bend of the Green River. After driving past the only gas station in Jensen, population 400, a visitor crosses the river, turns left and is soon surrounded by a meticulously managed, 22,000-acre ranch, lush with green alfalfa.
Nearly all of it is destined for China. :snip:
Simon Wen Shao, a Chinese-born U.S. citizen who’s a co-owner of the Utah alfalfa farm, acknowledged that locals had acted warily when his company purchased the ranch. Friends of his farm manager, Frank Biggs, immediately chided Biggs for “working for the communists.”
Shao said those concerns had eased as his company had attempted to build ties in the community, buying new farm equipment and modernizing the ranch. One of his first steps was to rename the historic property “Escalante Ranch” after the previous owner had dubbed it “Thunder Ranch.”
“I think local people liked that decision,” he said during a tour of the farm. “It sounds better than Red Dragon Ranch.”
:snip:
Michael J. McKee, a Uintah County commissioner, said that many local growers recognized that foreign demand for alfalfa helped raise the price for their crop, aiding the county’s farm economy. Still, McKee acknowledged he’d heard from a few constituents who want “our land here to be held by American farmers.”
(Excerpt) Read more at fresnobee.com ...
Actually, Red China has about 1/5 the arable land the US has...
A big problem w Red China....their prime growing areas are also quite prone to floods and earthquakes. One big one, and, there will be a lot of folks dead from starvation.
UN, WTO, NAFTA, NAU, TTIP....none of them won’t be able to remedy that
You’re not a traitor, you are a patriot! How much money do you want from me?
According to the world Bank it’s about 60%
There actually is a detail here being overlooked. Growing alfalfa takes water. A very precious commodity in the West. I open this point up to debate - is this an indirect way of diverting that resource? Given the water needs in the West, is that wise? I lived out West, I know a bit about water concerns.
I got a rebuttal, the Japanese destroyed eight of our top ten industries in the late 70’s, early 80’s. I still haven’t figured out who benefitted by that. All we had left was chemicals and aerospace. And aerospace has been under a major assault this last couple of decades. I saw perfectly good aircraft sent to the boneyard the last few years I worked in aerospace. One that had a major “glass” Cockpit renovation (digital) and was a flying testbed. “Dead Ted”
politics, in Ohio mind you.
That’s a good question. I don’t know if this farmer gets his water for “free,” or not.
Sorry, how exactly did the Japanese destroy these industries? Did they send bombers over and level the factories? Whom is assaulting aerospace? Is Airbus sending over bombers to Seattle and Everett?
He says because of subsidies and old water rights, farmers don't pay the true cost of their water, especially the environmental costs. As the water supply for cities gets stretched ever thinner, he'd like to see restrictive water laws loosened up so there's a truly free market.
"If you were to allocate an acre-foot of water to a high tech industry in California, it would produce 16,000 jobs or there abouts," Graham said. "Allocate the same amount of water to growing alfalfa, it produces about eight jobs in the entire chain. So it's 2,000 times more efficient to move the water, and yet our laws don't allow it."
1. We don’t have free trade with China.
then why even argue free trade principles when it comes to exporting to China?
2. You appear to be objecting that we are shipping stuff to China.
Nope. They can have all the alfalfa they can afford - at a hugh premium, called tarriff-added = which won’t affect local prices since it will be the gubment collecting it. Now if they want brocolli...
In the midwest last year, alfalfa prices doubled (blamed on the drought but hey, maybe it was China demand). What small farm is not going to be hurt with feed costs doubling in one year?
http://brownfieldagnews.com/2013/05/03/alfalfa-hay-prices-up-substantially-in-the-midwest/
and what happened at the local grocery store in response? Well let me ask, seen any 99cent/lb USA ground beef lately????.
So how is that free-trade working for us, exactly, when it’s not free trade? And how’s the associated tarriff-free policy working out for to our benefit (which is what capitalism is all about, right, our benefit)? Not so well. And yet we argue for continuing to apply free-trade principles anyway and expect things to sort itself out somehow? Mkay. Let me ponder that while I bite into the steak that just cost me $7/lb.
Who is doing that? I would imagine that a farmer knows best how much to charge for his product. No need for the government, or you, to get involved.
Beef is more expensive, we all know that. Do you want to blame "free trade," or do you want to consider what is making beef more expensive?
Most free traitors ignore cause and effect. If their countrymen get the shaft so much the better. Conservative doesn’t = patriot in their eyes.
You want to add a tariff to exports?
That is not free trade.
No need to send bombers over and level the factories.
The EPA, OSHA and NIMBY will shut them down as quick as they can!
The unions will be glad to help too.
Don’t forget the communist in congress who were behind the erisa ruling in 1988 changing company pension vesting rights from ten years to five years. This devastated manufacturing in my state.
Not sure about World Bank number
Get a good map...that shows relief features of both China and US. Majority of China is either desert or extremely high elevation
mountain ranges....very little arable land in the west. The US has much more arable land
I think the article tries to twist the citizenship issue a bit. I don’t see where Zhang’s is told but his Chinese partner, Simon, is an American citizen. Later in the article it refers matter of factly to the farm being a ‘chinese company.’ Which is a different issue in that, unlike the Brits or whomever else, there is no chinese company the chinese government isn’t a partner to.(And I have no clue what taxes a chinese company would pay to the US govt). Or maybe the reporter was wrong and it’s an American company beholding to the IRS. But since the McKee comment of America for Americans was raised in the article, I thought I’d throw it out there, too.
You are a traitor. Hand over your wallet to those who know best.
Don’t forget either, Bundy Ranch, China, Harry Reid, solar farm. We do not want China owning things in the USA.
" ...the historic ranch comes with generous water rights..."
I'm a strong supporter of water rights so that's one thing I can't take a position against. Since it was an existing alfalfa farm when purchased, there's not much argument against his continued water use.
on the other hand, if he starts bottling it and exporting it to China, we're gonna need to talk to the fella
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