![]() A simple,Ĭalculated crop replacement can help by curbing the land’s need for water. Water conservation-streamflow in the Verde River,” he says. Once he fires the engine, a dashboard warning chimes. In Metro Phoenix, everyday dihydrogen monoxide willĬlimbs back into his truck. But the most elemental and harrowing issue that city leaders will have to face reaches back not only to the Hohokam, but to the very meaning of “desert.” (July days already average 104 degrees.) Many of Phoenix’s sustainability obstacles are tied to food systems: farming, transportation, recycling. By 2100, city summer temperatures are projected to have risen by 9.2 degrees. These challenges threaten the desert metropolis’s sustainability, in both the near and distant future. And today, just like in the past, the good people of this Sonoran basin face immense resource challenges. The suburban towns around the city-which, together with Phoenix, are collectively known as Metro Phoenix-house some 4.5 million human souls. And today, Phoenix is home to 1,660,000 people, making it the fifth-largest city in the country. In 1920, before the building boom began, Phoenix was home to 29,000 people-fewer than the area supported 800 years before. Phoenix expanded so fast in the 20th century that developers razed structures built by the Hohokam, prehistoric North American Indians who lived in present-day central and southern Arizona as early as the 3rd century, until laws were enacted to protect what remained. Walking parts of Phoenix today, you might spot the ruins of an ancient canal, but probably not. Sustain rivers like the Verde-a crucial Arizona waterway that provides to Metro ![]() To show that his operation, writ far and large, has the potential to help Grown in a way that keys into the natural cycles of the Verde River. The Verde Valley farmers Norton works with have replaced a total of between 125Īnd 150 acres of feed-corn and alfalfa with malt barley. Verde, Arizona facility before selling mostly to Phoenix-based craft brewers. Malt barley, which, once harvested, his team will then malt in their nearby Camp Is the president of two-year-old Sinagua Malt. “In Arizona,” Norton says, “that’s not a problem.” Partners, Hauser and Hauser Farms, will start to harvest this crop about a weekĪfter I meet him, when its moisture level falls a notch or two below 15 percent. Plucks a barley head and spins it between his fingers. Waves of grain,” he says, moving into a golden ocean of stalks. Leaves the paved road and traces along a grain field. June, he is already immersed in his new work, checking on barley fields. Norton spent the last decade of his career as a public works contractor for Hour north of Phoenix, Arizona, Chip Norton drives his truck toward the Verde
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