TOUCHSTONE

Data Bits

It has been said that we now live in a post-truth society. Any society that blindly worships an historical "golden age" without historical reference and doubts all inconvenient data and facts is ripe for fascism. While data is not everything, neither is it unimportant. Education teaches us to research and check out the data we are given by referencing numerous, unrelated sources. Please do so.

• Most failed farms and ranches become subdivisions or industrial zones.

• Utah farms and ranches use about 80% of the total available water. About 60% of this goes to cows and alfalfa.

• Farmland open space, fence rows, wooded gullies and crop gleanings feed and shelter much of our local and migrating wildlife.

• Utah Agriculture contributes about 3% of the state's GDP [Gross Domestic Product].

• Public land grazing costs the rancher $1.69/ AUM (cow and a calf). Private western grazing lands lease for about $23/ AUM.

• Urban residential use of Utah water totals about 7-10% of the total water usage. In Utah 60% of residential water use goes to lawns.

• Industrial AI data center water use is at present a "protected data" unavailable to the public.

• Utah data center water use can exceed 10,000 acre-feet per year, enough to supply 22,000 homes with water.

• Nuclear power plants use 1.5 to two times as much water as coal power plants.

• Nearly 1.5 million acres of U.S. farmland is removed every year from agricultural production. Of the remaining 421 million acres most is eroding too fast to maintain long-term productivity.

• Nearly fifty percent, or 55 million acres, of BLM lands fail to meet BLM health standards. Overgrazing is identified as the primary cause.

• Nearly 25%, or 41 million acres, of BLM rangeland has never been assessed for health.

• At an average wage of $19/hour, 60-75% of western farm labor is done by immigrants.

• In the last half century Utah has lost 531 square miles of once productive farmland to development.

• From September to December of 2025 95,000 federal workers employed in scientific research and monitoring were terminated.

• Ninety six percent of U.S. forests have been logged. Less than 4% of the old growth forests found here by Euro-American immigrants remain.

• Americans spend a smaller share of their income on food than any other nation, less than 10%.