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. 

Recent newspaper articles have been replete with accounts concerning the devastating water shortage impacting Arizona and other southwestern states. Due to severe drought conditions Lake Mead, the country’s largest water reservoir, is only 38 percent full and the water level at Lake Powell has dropped to 45 percent.

The federal subsidies that prop up cotton farming in Arizona are just one of myriad ways policymakers have refused to reshape laws to reflect water shortages throughout the Colorado River Basin states.

A new poll of 400 Arizonans shows a slight majority, 53 percent, believe the state is in a water crisis, and an even higher percentage say politicians and the media aren’t giving the crisis enough attention.