Who gains from saving nature
Ledger 1 : 33 — For each dollar financing nature-based solutions in 2023, about $33 financed activities harmful to nature. (UNEP)
Cases / Water use · Saudi Arabia · 1980

Saudi wheat cut and 2018 fodder ban; Almarai's alfalfa farms in Arizona

Short record: the main facts, with sources. A full case file has not been prepared.

Nature's voice · report
No measurement of the harm done to me here is on record.
Did nature suffer? Not measured.
What the record lacks: 3 insufficient · 1 not measured See the gaps

Saudi Arabia dropped irrigated wheat in 2008 after saying its fossil aquifer was largely depleted, then banned green fodder in 2018. Almarai's subsidiary Fondomonte grew alfalfa in Arizona, where nearby wells and a church well have dried.

What?
Saudi Arabia dropped fossil-aquifer wheat in 2008 and banned green fodder in 2018. Almarai's subsidiary Fondomonte then grew alfalfa on leased Arizona land. Resilience / Earth Policy Institute
Where?
Saudi Arabia (fossil aquifer and wheat fields); Ranegras basin, La Paz County, Arizona
When?
Wheat cut announced January 2008; fodder ban took effect 5 November 2018; Arizona lease action October 2023; lawsuit December 2024 Resilience / Earth Policy Institute
Who?
Gained
  • Almarai, through Fondomonte — grew alfalfa on about 10,000 acres bought in Arizona for 48 million US dollars, with the harvest sent to Saudi cows
Lost
  • Well owners near Salome, Arizona — Floodlight and Sentient Media reported in October 2025 that a family's wells dried and water is now trucked from Wenden
Harmed
  • Wenden and the Ranegras basin — Wenden's water level is reported at 540 feet below ground, against 117 feet in 1946, and the town subsided about 1.2 metres
Why?
The sources reviewed say Arizona's reason for the 2023 lease action was unfixed fuel-tank deficiencies since 2016, not water.
How?
Fossil groundwater irrigated Saudi wheat; Almarai's Arizona farms pumped groundwater to grow alfalfa. Resilience / Earth Policy Institute
6 of 6 questions answered from the record

What happened

The record, in order.

Saudi Arabia said in January 2008 that its fossil aquifer was largely depleted, and it dropped wheat (Lester Brown, Earth Policy Institute, Resilience, 2011).

Argaam reported that Saudi Arabia's green fodder ban took effect on 5 November 2018; green fodder had used about 17 billion cubic metres of water a year.

Fortune, carrying an AP report in October 2023, said Arizona cancelled one of Fondomonte's four leases and did not renew the other three.

Arizona's attorney general sued Fondomonte in December 2024, alleging the company drained the basin and caused land subsidence; the case is ongoing.

    In court and with insurers

    Every proceeding and every insurer decision on record.

    Lawsuits and rulings

    No court case on record. No court has ruled on this case.

    Insurers

    No insurer decision on record.

    What we don't know

    Undisclosed, unproven, untried: recorded as data.

    Nature

    • Not measured Harm to nature: The record holds no measurement of harm to nature.

    Record

    • Insufficient Reported but not verified: Almarai's subsidiary bought 1,790 acres at Blythe, California, in January 2016, and its costs rose by 200 million riyals.
    • Insufficient Reported but not verified: Saudi wheat support reached five times the world price, and harvests fell by more than two-thirds in 2007 to 2010.
    • Insufficient Reported but not verified: a 2008 plan to cut wheat by 12.5 percent a year, reaching zero by 2016.

    Did the harm stop?

    Not stated in the sources reviewed.

    Who paid?

    Not stated in the sources reviewed.

    Sources

    Voices on record: — Company or project— Government and regulators— Courts✓ Press and investigations✓ Communities and civil society— Researchers

    Press and investigations

    Communities and civil society

    1. Lester Brown, Resilience (Earth Policy Institute), 3 May 2011
      Resilience / Earth Policy Institute · 2011-05-03

    Connected cases

    Related matters, and cases linked to this one through the same organisations, with the role each played in both.
    Terms used on this page

    Science and environment

    Groundwater
    Water held underground in soil and rock, drawn through wells.
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