Arizona promotes itself as a world leader in water management. Yet rural wells and rivers are drying up since sustainable water management plans are hindered by laws no longer appropriate for these times. Our relationship with desert water has changed, and our water laws must change too. 

The Colorado River water shortages should not define Arizona agriculture as much as they should trigger changes toward a more resilient food system that we have needed all along. Let’s now jumpstart them in a bold manner. 

The time has come to start asking the hard questions. Does an industry that adds 1% to the state GDP have the right to mine our groundwater, destroy our flowing rivers, and take water that can never be replaced? Can this industry be reformed or modernized to use less water? How do we better protect Arizona's water resources so that flowing streams and rivers are not dried out by thirsty groundwater wells growing alfalfa for dairy cows? Should certain crops be discouraged or banned? Should groundwater pumping have a monetary cost?

There are thankful ranchers across Arizona, myself included, after an extraordinary monsoon season that filled our scorched dirt tanks with water and re-seeded our rangelands with knee-high green grass. But well below the surface, and just up-stream, the drought persists.

State officials are putting farmers in south-central Arizona on notice that the continuing drought means a "substantial cut" in deliveries of Colorado River water is expected next year.

Gov. Doug Ducey is using hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funds earmarked for COVID-19 relief to pay for state operations, such as salaries, which some say contravenes the intention of Congress. Ducey, who controls nearly $1.9 billion of ...

A resilient, local agriculture industry is essential to food security in times of crisis. Let’s be sure our decisions are the right ones and that they don’t jeopardize that system. We may well regret it the next time we face adversity.

Lobbyist Bas Aja’s name is synonymous with the cattle industry in Arizona. And now, he’s a part of the next chapter in Arizona agriculture history.

Arizona’s newest senator, Sine Kerr, follows in the footsteps of former Sen. Steve Pierce and the late Sen. Chester Crandell as a lawmaker who lives and breathes the agricultural lifestyle.

The number of H-2A visas issued to agricultural workers in the state has more than doubled in the past five years, mirroring a national increase in the temporary “guest worker program” for noncitizens.