Portrait of a Farm

On November 5th, 2013, I spent the afternoon with my father, Dean Wells. On the South edge of Casa Grande, he was out picking cotton on farmland that he has long walked on. He was out just as he had been during picking season for all of my life and all of his own as well.

This year he stared out proudly at the field - he said it was one of the best he'd ever had with cotton bolls open the full length of each of the plants that reached to your waist.

Casa Grande, located halfway between Phoenix and Tucson acts mostly as a bedroom community these days - with the majority of it's residents commuting back and forth to it's neighboring cities for work.

Much unlike it's current atmosphere of service industry workers and commuters, Casa Grande, historically, has a long standing tradition of agriculture.

After the fall of the mining boom, when the town of Terminus had just been renamed Casa Grande after the nearby Native American ruins, there was almost a complete abandonment of the town. Due to the advent of agriculture though, Casa Grande experienced a rebirth mainly due to the cotton and dairy industries. Since then, Casa Grande has steadily grown from a small, rural town of only 5 residents to home to more than 48,000

Despite it's history of agriculture, this long standing industry has begun to decline. A shortage of water (for both environmental and societal reasons - see "Arizona could see loss in water for agriculture use"), and most recently a new rule being passed that could see many Pinal County farmers lose rights to groundwater gradually until 2055 until they are permanently extinguished. This is despite the fact that a large portion of the economy in that area is supported by agriculture. The city hopes to push out agriculture in favor of developers as the value of the land drops (see "Casa Grande councilman says ‘secret’ rule could devastate area agriculture") Already, much of the farming land is seen lying bare during crop seasons.

Dean Wells, of Wells Cotton Co, was born in Casa Grande when the hospital was located where a Water and Ice now stands, and was raised in a home that his father built. He has spent his entire life as a farmer, continuing a long family tradition in agriculture, and lives today in his family home.

Over the years of his life, he has experienced the ups and the downs of good years and bad years of any farmer - crops flattened by weather and droughts exchanged with an occasional year of an excellent snowfall in the mountains to provide water in the more arid climates. However within the last few years, he, like many other farmers has seen a severe reduction in available water and has come to rely more and more on well water.  As this has happened, more and more land has been left empty. 

As Casa Grande moves forward, it leaves behind a noble profession that once built and continues to support it's economy, and many farmers, including Dean, continue to fight for agriculture to remain present in the community. But, so much of the community who was raised driving past familiar fields of white in the fall will begin to see more and more bare fields as the trend continues, and the loss of a beautiful tradition.