GMO feedback, the Ogallala aquifer and researcher objectivity

Our purpose in writing this series of columns on GMOs was not to try to convince one side or the other, but rather to argue that the GMO labeling legislation that was recently signed into law by President Obama is not likely to end the GMO crop debate any time soon.  We also wanted to reiterate one of the fundamental principles of economics: the preferences of the customer are at the center of every transaction. As Specter wrote “it doesn’t matter…if people refuse to eat it.”  That same issue of “National Geographic” contained another article that grabbed our attention. In a play on the Maxwell House Coffee slogan, Laura Parker’s article on the Ogallala aquifer is titled, “To the Last Drop.” The tagline attached to that title tells it all, “The Ogallala aquifer turned the US Midwest into the nation’s breadbasket. What happens when the water runs out?”  The Ogallala aquifer runs along the base of the east slope of the Rocky Mountains from South Dakota to the panhandle of Texas, including parts of eight states adjacent to that line. It took 15,000 years to fill the aquifer and over the last “60 years [it] has been pumped out faster than raindrops and snowmelt can seep back into the ground to replenish it, thanks largely to irrigation machinery.”  In the nineteenth century, the part of the high plains that overlies the Ogallala aquifer was called the Great American Desert because of the low rainfall and arid conditions. Only with water from below ground has the area become “home to at least a $20-billion-a-year industry that grows nearly one-fifth of the United States’ wheat, corn, and beef cattle.”  With the water level in wells dropping by a foot a year in some areas, that level of production will not last indefinitely. Some farmers have already had to revert to dryland farming, with a significant reduction in yields. Towns in the area are also experiencing water problems that make it difficult for them to meet the needs of their residents in the long-term.  The logical solution would be for everyone in the affected area to reduce their water draw to a level where the demand for water and the recharge from rainfall are equal. Here is where we see what is called the tragedy of the commons.