From The Pueblo Chieftain (Chris Woodka):
John McKowen admits paying higher prices for water to grow crops arouses suspicion that the end game might be marketing the water. But he thinks that in coming years, the smart money will be on farmers, not developers. ?I think agriculture can be the economic engine that promotes a more efficient use of water,? McKowen, CEO of Two Rivers Water and Farming Co., told The Pueblo Chieftain editorial board Wednesday. ?The price of water is going up, and it promotes more efficient use when you pay the true cost of water.?
McKowen waved aside any suggestions that the company he started three years ago wants to do anything besides make money from its farming operations. ?I have no interest in being in the water marketing business,? McKowen said. That said, he is interested in working on an arrangement with Colorado Springs Utilities and the Pueblo Board of Water Works to store water in reservoirs he plans to build on the Excelsior Ditch east of Pueblo. He would like to use excess municipal water to grow even more crops, in return for providing storage space to help the cities recover yield lost in providing Arkansas River flows through Pueblo. The reservoir sites McKowen wants to develop are in the same location identified for the recovery of yield program in 2005.
Two Rivers? business plan involves supporting about 30,000 acres of vegetable crops either through direct ownership, leasing land or marketing for other growers, McKowen said. Vegetable crops have the potential for producing higher profits than the hay and corn, which are most widely grown in the Arkansas Valley. ?A 400-acre farm could net $2,000 per acre rather than grossing $1,500 an acre,? McKowen said. ?What?s hard to envision is that there will be a renaissance in agriculture.?
McKowen is primarily a businessman, and was successful in an Internet startup venture in the late 1990s and a South American oil venture a few years later. He became interested in farming after realizing a global food shortage is looming as population grows. The Arkansas Valley has the right climate, and with proper infrastructure could become a major vegetable growing region, he said. ?People are naturally and reasonably suspicious,? McKowen said. ?All we?re interested in is growing the number of farms we have on the Bessemer Ditch and the Huerfano-Cucharas Ditch system.?
More Arkansas River Basin coverage here and here.
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