A US lawmaker from the state of Arizona has introduced legislation in Congress that would impose a 300 percent tax on the sale of water-intensive crops grown by foreign companies in the state, in a bid to curb the extensive use of water in the drought-stricken state.
Its the consumption of of water. One of the plants that is likely targeted by the tax is alfalfa, which is a plant used for animal feed. The top importers of alfalfa is china, uae and saudi arabia. Alfalfa is a very water intensive plant and most of its grown in the southwest/California.
It basically makes states $ at the cost that its a huge water drainer. Albeit not Arizona, keep in mind in california, resident use of water is only like 5% of the supply, and wouldnt be suprised of Arizona would be similar. Were in a drought basically to subsidize the price of poultry/cattle for other major nations
If it was about water, it wouldnt matter who was doing the extracting. Removing water is removing water and everyone doing it no matter where they were based should be charged that tax but they’re not. Like… if foreign companies were the main ones using a ton of water, there would be no need to target that tax to them specifically because theyd be hit with it just by using all those water resources anyway. But targeting it suggests that the state is fine with American companies wasting water, they just dont want foreigners doing it.
Well yes but this foreign company is using the water to grow a product that is exported. Foreign companies who are doing the same thing to sell locally may get screwed by this, but I’m not sure how many would be affected.