HOLDING ON: THE POLITICAL ECOLOGY OF AGRICULTURAL PERSISTENCE IN THE PINAL ACTIVE MANAGEMENT AREA

Abstract

Following the nineteenth century westward expansion of the United States, Euro-American settlers sought to “make the desert bloom.” When proximal surface and groundwater resources proved insufficient to achieve this goal, American policy sought to tame the water of the West and concretely redirect it towards opportunities for capital accumulation, first through irrigation. Land within the Pinal Active-Management-Area (AMA) fits directly into this larger narrative, first primarily utilizing groundwater, then Colorado River water from the Central Arizona Project to stave off “water bankruptcy.” Although the CAP provided a fresh pool of water resources, restrictions from the 1980 Arizona Groundwater Management Act directed the Pinal AMA to “preserve existing agricultural economies in the Pinal AMA for as long as feasible,” balancing the needs of existing agricultural water demands with those of the future–likely from municipal and industrial sources. This study finds that, despite vast human-created and natural pressures on agricultural producers within the Pinal AMA, low-value/field crop agriculture remains the dominant land use of the region from 2008-2023. I also contend that agricultural persistence within the AMA is not only a product of private economic profitability, but also due to various, significant ways in which social, cultural, political, and economic power converge on the ground to diminish the true costs of making the desert bloom.