"An arid region 180 miles south of Tijuana is the crossroads where strawberries, economics, and groundwater meet. Baja usually gets less than three inches of rain annually, and there is a multi-year drought. But strawberries grown for export have become so valuable, farmers keep trying to grow more, and are allowed to use more groundwater than nature replenishes."
"For Americans, what probably matters most in this story are the strawberries. For most Mexicans in the northern Baja peninsula, what matters is the robust economy strawberries bring. For some, what matters most is the steady loss of the fresh groundwater that makes strawberries possible here.
The San Quintín valley, an arid region 180 miles south of Tijuana, is the crossroads where strawberries, economics, and groundwater meet. The average rainfall in northern Baja is less than three inches annually; there is a multi-year drought. For a century, groundwater irrigated local crops. But strawberries grown for export have become so valuable, farmers keep trying to grow more, and are allowed to use more groundwater than nature replenishes.
Visitors can see this meeting place while riding along the two-lane highway through the valley towns. These sprawl at crazy angles in what academics call “anarchic growth.” Each year brings more ramshackle homes, where workers live. Also more cell towers, gas stations, condos, and places to eat. Seemingly endless strawberry fields surround town centers, which are continuously under construction. Old American school buses shuttle workers to and from the fields; trucks carry lumber and cement to construction sites, all amid clouds of dust."
Felicity Barringer reports for ...& the West blog July 13, 2018.
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