Why Saudi Arabia bought 14,000 acres of US farm land

Christian Science Monitor ^ | March 28, 2016 | Elliot Spagat and Aya Batrawy,

[yoe]

The Middle Eastern kingdom needs hay for its 170,000 cows. So, it's buying up farmland for the water-chugging crop in the drought-stricken American Southwest.

Saudi Arabia's largest dairy company will soon be unable to farm alfalfa in its own parched country to feed its 170,000 cows. So it's turning to an unlikely place to grow the water-chugging crop — the drought-stricken American Southwest.

Almarai Co. bought land in January that roughly doubled its holdings in California's Palo Verde Valley, an area that enjoys first dibs on water from the Colorado River. The company also acquired a large tract near Vicksburg, Arizona, becoming a powerful economic force in a region that has fewer well-pumping restrictions than other parts of the state....

[ilovesarah2012]

Is this the same Saudi Arabia that wants to kill homosexuals? Are the liberals concerned about this?

[Rusty0604]

Big Cultural center with a training camp.

[bgill]

Shipping hay to SA, my aunt fanny. They’re up to something with that land but it’s definitely not hay. They may plant it and ship it for a few years but I’m not buying this at all.

[Fhios]

"The primary focus is food security, and the means to that end lie in acquiring the land and resources to ensure long-term supply."

Again, not truth. I wouldn't say cattle for feed from 2000+ miles away as a secure source. Quite the opposite. When you read articles like this you have to get past the sentences and consider the reality and alternatives. Like I said, they may be buying the land. But to think it's to grow cattle feed is ridiculous. It's a pretense.

[indcons]

The ChiComs are buying hay and animal fodder from CA.

[Mamzelle]

But the Bush family is so close to the Royal Sauds///

[Justa]

” don’t think it’s economically and environmentally sound to ship it 2000+ miles to feed cattle.”

Agreed. But it IS economically feasible to use the land’s water rights to sell water to CA municipalities during droughts while buying hay elsewhere.

Corruption, look for the Dem. politician.

[Mr Radical]

There’s no point piling up petro-dollars in the bank, it’s much better converting that paper money into something, anything, and real estate is the most basic commodity...

[Mr Radical]

yep ... if they don’t build a mosque on it then they can always use it for their next terrorist base camp.

[virgil]

Yeah, but they are exploiting our natural resources and sending the product to Saudi Arabia for their use. That would be a big no-no if a US company did that to a third world country. That would be just awful. The left would go apoplectic. College professors would crap in their diapers

We should tax the living daylights out of their little operation. Make them pay big.

[virgil]

Maybe they want to do some fracking.

[DuncanWaring]

I thought it came from Jefferson Davis.

[Laser_Ray]

I still haven’t gotten a straight answer when I’ve asked some cornpone Robert E. Lee wannabe why his glorious old south thought it was a brilliant idea to import shiploads of bongo-pounding savages rather than pay his fellow white man a decent day’s pay. Especially in light of the fact that the descendants of the former group are now robbing his corner store, burning down his city, menacing his daughter and wife when they aren’t watching Opera all day while drinking beer they paid for by scamming the food stamp system he pays for with his taxes.

[Pelham]

“We really should have got some of our own damned oil somewhere else and never get involved in that part of the world.”

We were the world’s biggest oil producer right through WWII. That adventure used up a lot of what we had. We didn’t buy any Saudi petrol until around 1950.

[VicVanleeuwenhoek]

Hey Saudis, do not let your cows graze on government land or they may execute you and your cows! No, only American citizens have to worry about that.