Learn More
Hide
Download
Download a zip file that includes all the web pages and downloadable files from the student materialsFor the Instructor
These student materials complement the Future of Food Instructor Materials. If you would like your students to have access to the student materials, we suggest you either point them at the Student Version which omits the framing pages with information designed for faculty (and this box). Or you can download these pages in several formats that you can include in your course website or local Learning Managment System. Learn more about using, modifying, and sharing InTeGrate teaching materials.Colorado River Case Study
Flow Depletion and Salinity
The Colorado River in the southwestern U.S. is an excellent case study of a river that is highly utilized for irrigation and agriculture. A majority of the Colorado River's drainage basin has an arid or semi-arid climate and receives less than 20 inches of rain per year (Figure 4.2.5), and yet the Colorado River provides water for nearly 40 million people (including the cities of Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Denver) and irrigates 2.2 million hectares (5.5 million acres) of farm land, producing 15 percent of U.S. crops and 13 percent of livestock (USBR 2012). Much of the irrigated land is not within the boundaries of the drainage basin, so the water is exported from the basin via canals and tunnels and does not return to the Colorado River (Figure 4.2.6).
The net results of all of these uses of Colorado River water (80 percent of which are agricultural) in both the U.S. and Mexico are that the Colorado River no longer reaches the sea, the delta is a dry mudflat, and the water that flows into Mexico is so salty as a result of agricultural return flows that the U.S. government spends millions of dollars per year to remove salt from the Colorado River.
Many farmers in the Colorado River basin are working to use Colorado River water more efficiently to grow our food and food for the animals that we eat. Watch the video below and answer the questions to learn more about farming in the Colorado River basin.
Credit: Map by Gigi Richard
Credit: USBR 2012
Check your Understanding
Watch the following video by the National Young Farmers Coalition.
Video: Resilient: Soil, water and the new stewards of the American West (10:13)
Resilient: Soil, Water and the New Stewards of the American West.
Answer the following questions:
How does the Colorado River touch the lives of nearly every American?
What practices are introduced in the film that can increase water use efficiency when growing irrigated crops?
How can healthy soil reduce the amount of water used to grow crops?
How do cover crops help conserve water?
