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Maxwell School News and Commentary

Filtered by: Agriculture

Ethan Coffel Receives NSF Award to Study Climate and Agriculture

The funding will enable the Maxwell School assistant professor to build on his study of the crop-climate feedback cycle. 

August 2, 2023

Koch Quoted in The Hill Article on Saudi Arabian Alfalfa Farms in Arizona

“If they [Saudi Arabia] want to be able to guarantee their population food security, they know that they can’t really do that domestically,” says Natalie Koch, professor of geography and the environment. The Arizonan land was particularly appealing to the kingdom “because you can get more bang for your buck when you buy that farm,” says Koch.

May 10, 2023

Koch Discusses Saudi Arabian Farms Using Water From Arizona and California in KUSA Article

“If you can invest the capital to drill a deep well that can get deep into the groundwater supply, then you can really pump as much as you want,” says Natalie Koch, professor of geography and the environment. “This was appealing to the Saudis as well to go [to La Paz County], where they’re not being charged for water they extract because there’s no measuring of it.”

April 29, 2023

Koch Weighs in on Western States Banning Foreign Groundwater Use in Stateline Article

“The U.S. has always been promoting and setting up this entire thing,” says Natalie Koch, professor of geography and the environment. “It’s not like the Americans are passive in this. We have absolutely helped sow the seeds for that Saudi agricultural industry that has come back to us now.”

March 16, 2023

Koch Talks to KTVK About Arizona’s Outdated Water Law

Natalie Koch, professor of geography and the environment, argues that state lawmakers need to update the state’s 43 year old water law and create more active management areas to regulate water use across Arizona. “There needs to be some way of monitoring and regulating who is drawing what from the aquifers,” says Koch.

February 21, 2023

Koch Article on Arizona Depleting its Groundwater Supply Published in New York Times

“Pumping groundwater in Arizona remains largely unregulated,” writes Natalie Koch, professor of geography. “It’s this legal failing that, in part, allows the Saudi company to draw unlimited amounts of water to grow an alfalfa crop that feeds dairy cows 8,000 miles away.”

January 10, 2023

Comparing Happiness Associated With Household and Community Gardening

Graham Ambrose, Kirti Das, Yingling Fan, Anu Ramaswami

"Comparing Happiness Associated With Household and Community Gardening: Implications for Food Action Planning," co-authored by Ph.D. student Graham Ambrose, was published in Landscape and Urban Planning.

November 23, 2022

Koch Quoted in BBC Article on Dubai, Desertification

Desertification, the process by which fertile land becomes desert, typically as a result of drought, deforestation or inappropriate agriculture, has become rampant in the United Arab Emirates. Natalie Koch, associate professor of geography and the environment, talks more about it in the BBC article, "How Dubai is pushing back its encroaching deserts."
January 27, 2022

Ethan Coffel awarded three-year NSF grant to study climate-crop cycle

Coffel, professor of geography and the environment, hopes to use crop-climate cycles as a way to assess the future risk of climate-driven food insecurity.
April 22, 2021

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