Why Do We Grow So Much Alfalfa?

Bales of alfalfa in the Imperial Irrigation District of southern Calfornia, grown with Colorado River water. Photo by Brian Richter

During recent years I’ve had the great fortune to work with some amazing scientists on some really interesting research projects focused on water use and food production in the American West. Due to widespread concerns over water scarcity in this region, the papers resulting from our studies have captured a lot of media attention, including one published last week that has already been covered in 77 news stories.

The most common question that reporters ask about our research is, “Why are we growing so much alfalfa?”

This question emanates from some of the key findings in our papers:

• Alfalfa farms consume 26% of the Colorado River’s water.
• Alfalfa farming accounts for 20% of water consumed in the western 17 states
• Alfalfa and other grass hays are the most water-consumptive crops in 57% of river basins in the western US (see map below)

Color coding indicates which crop consumes the most water in each river basin. Alfalfa and other grass hays are the most water-consumptive crops in 57% of river basins in the western US (from Richter and others, 2023)

So why ARE we growing so much alfalfa if we have a water scarcity problem?

My simple response to this question: Because farmers and ranchers produce what we want to eat and are willing to pay for.

No, we don’t eat alfalfa. Not directly. But we eat beef, and we eat dairy products, and those foods come from cows that eat alfalfa and other grass hays.

It’s also important to clarify who the “we” is here because reporters are also asking how much gets exported out of the US. As of 2022, we exported about 7% of all alfalfa produced, and virtually all of that was grown in the western US. The leading recipients of those exports include China, Japan, and Saudi Arabia (see graph below). The reasons why these countries need to import alfalfa from the US are quite interesting, but I’ll leave that for a future blog.

Countries receiving US exports of alfalfa in recent years. Source: US Department of Agriculture

Consumer demands for alfalfa

In our 2020 Nature Sustainability paper we estimated that 2/3 of all alfalfa and grass hay grown in the western US goes to beef production, and 1/3 goes to dairy. However, those stats combine alfalfa with other hays, and can be misleading in the aggregate because most grass hay goes to beef production, and most alfalfa goes to dairy production. In major dairy producing states such as California, Idaho, and New Mexico, 75-80% of alfalfa production goes to dairies.

Overall milk production in the US has grown by 35% since 2000. That’s not because Americans want to drink more milk; in fact, per capita milk drinking has dropped by 27%. Instead, much more milk is being produced to meet increased demands for yogurt (+378%) and cheese (+72%).

Beef consumption has remained steady but very high. Americans consume four times more beef per person than the global average. On average, we eat the equivalent of a quarter-pound hamburger every single day per person.

Alfalfa pays well too

Farmers and ranchers are constantly paying attention to which crops might be most profitable. That largely explains the recent growth in alfalfa production — with associated increases in water consumption — in some farming regions in the western US: the price is right.

In our 2023 Nature Water paper we highlighted the fact that in some of our study areas, water consumption by alfalfa has been increasingly sharply (see blue traces in each graph below), placing a great deal of added stress on scarce water resources. Increased demand for alfalfa in dairies is creating a lot of water stress in these regions.

As mentioned previously, one-quarter of all of the Colorado River’s water goes to alfalfa farming. In the Great Salt Lake basin, one-third of the river flow that could have replenished the vastly diminished lake goes to alfalfa.

So what should we do?

Media reporters also commonly ask about possible solutions: what should we do?

To start, there’s a lot we can do in our homes and businesses. Minimize how much water you use outdoors on lawns and gardens, and use rainwater capture for your outdoor water to the extent feasible. Make sure your toilets and other indoor appliances are as water-efficient as possible. Those actions can relieve the pressure on overtaxed water supplies such as the Colorado River, and we all need to do our part.

Importantly, we also need to stop blame-shaming farmers for their business decisions. Nor should we try to regulate what farmers can grow, or who they can sell to. As I said previously, they grow what we want to eat and are willing to pay for. If you care about the water crises in the West, perhaps you should think about what you’re eating: how much yogurt, how much cheese, how many burgers and steaks? Farmers will shift to growing other crops when our demands of them change.

Lastly, we need to insist that those individuals and agencies managing our water supplies do a much better job of planning for a secure, ecologically-sustainable water future. We’re stuck on reactive, short-term strategies such as forcing annual curtailments on water deliveries every time the water levels in our reservoirs or aquifers drop. This is no way to manage a water crisis. We need to quantify how much water is going to be reliably, sustainably available for our use over the long term and set a firm legal cap on that volume of consumption. Once we do that, our cities, industries, and farms will make the decisions and investments needed to thrive within nature’s limits.