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Running Out: In Search of Water on the High Plains
Finalist for the National Book Award
An intimate reckoning with aquifer depletion in America's heartland
The Ogallala aquifer has nourished life on the American Great Plains for millennia. But less than a century of unsustainable irrigation farming has taxed much of the aquifer beyond repair. The imminent depletion of the Ogallala and other aquifers around the world is a defining planetary crisis of our times. Running Out offers a uniquely personal account of aquifer depletion and the deeper layers through which it gains meaning and force.
Anthropologist Lucas Bessire journeyed back to western Kansas, where five generations of his family lived as irrigation farmers and ranchers, to try to make sense of this vital resource and its loss. His search for water across the drying High Plains brings the reader face to face with the stark realities of industrial agriculture, eroding democratic norms, and surreal interpretations of a looming disaster. Yet the destination is far from predictable, as the book seeks to move beyond the words and genres through which destruction is often known. Instead, this journey into the morass of eradication offers a series of unexpected discoveries about what it means to inherit the troubled legacies of the past and how we can take responsibility for a more inclusive, sustainable future.
An urgent and unsettling meditation on environmental change, Running Out is a revelatory account of family, complicity, loss, and what it means to find your way back home.
An intimate reckoning with aquifer depletion in America's heartland
The Ogallala aquifer has nourished life on the American Great Plains for millennia. But less than a century of unsustainable irrigation farming has taxed much of the aquifer beyond repair. The imminent depletion of the Ogallala and other aquifers around the world is a defining planetary crisis of our times. Running Out offers a uniquely personal account of aquifer depletion and the deeper layers through which it gains meaning and force.
Anthropologist Lucas Bessire journeyed back to western Kansas, where five generations of his family lived as irrigation farmers and ranchers, to try to make sense of this vital resource and its loss. His search for water across the drying High Plains brings the reader face to face with the stark realities of industrial agriculture, eroding democratic norms, and surreal interpretations of a looming disaster. Yet the destination is far from predictable, as the book seeks to move beyond the words and genres through which destruction is often known. Instead, this journey into the morass of eradication offers a series of unexpected discoveries about what it means to inherit the troubled legacies of the past and how we can take responsibility for a more inclusive, sustainable future.
An urgent and unsettling meditation on environmental change, Running Out is a revelatory account of family, complicity, loss, and what it means to find your way back home.
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First published May 18, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 102 reviews
November 25, 2022
The primary focus and message of this book is to explore the political, economic, and sociological factors that are leading to the imminent depletion of the Ogallala aquifer. However, I have classed this book as a memoir because it is written in first person narrative by the author, anthropologist Lucas Bessire, who is returning to his boyhood home in southwest Kansas where five generations of his family has lived as irrigation farmers and ranchers.
So in addition to learning about history of the region beginning with the displacement of the native Indians (including acknowledgment of Sand Creek and Waukesha Massacres) and the wholesale slaughter of the buffalo, we also learn about some complicated personal family history that includes a past estrangement from the author's father. But the relationship with his father is quiescent during the visit to to collect data for this book. As a matter of fact, many of the author's interviews were made possible by the presence of his father whose presence opened many doors to people who otherwise would have been inclined to be suspicious of outsiders.
The local economy depends on the availability of water and everyone knows that the source is being depleted mostly by agricultural irrigation, but a whole myriad of incentives continue to exist that encourage use at the maximum quantity and rate possible. The irony is that there are many modern tools and ways of conserving water that could stretch out the life of the aquifer, but they're not being utilized.
One of the biggest problems is that the decisions regarding use of the water is undemocratic. All inhabitants of the region will suffer when the water source is exhausted, but decisions regarding its use is limited to the few who own water rights. An additional irony is that about half of the population of the region is made up of a variety of minorities who are employed in the meatpacking and related industries, but water rights are own exclusively by a few whites and white owned corporations. And among the those who own water rights, the owners of the largest water rights are large corporations or individuals contracted to large corporations. It's a complicated story which can't be adequately explained by this review.
The book locates the author's boyhood home as being near the Cimarron River, but I was frustrated by the book's avoidance of naming any city and county names. I grew up in south-central Kansas so I wanted to know exactly where the author's home town was located. There's one place in the book where the author talks about Haskell County as being on the east side of county where his home was located. From that I have concluded that Ulysses, Kansas in Grant County is where he called home when he was young.
This book was a finalist for the 2021 National Book Award for Nonfiction.
An opinion piece from the Kansas City Star Newspaper on this subject:
https://eedition.kansascity.com/popov...
So in addition to learning about history of the region beginning with the displacement of the native Indians (including acknowledgment of Sand Creek and Waukesha Massacres) and the wholesale slaughter of the buffalo, we also learn about some complicated personal family history that includes a past estrangement from the author's father. But the relationship with his father is quiescent during the visit to to collect data for this book. As a matter of fact, many of the author's interviews were made possible by the presence of his father whose presence opened many doors to people who otherwise would have been inclined to be suspicious of outsiders.
The local economy depends on the availability of water and everyone knows that the source is being depleted mostly by agricultural irrigation, but a whole myriad of incentives continue to exist that encourage use at the maximum quantity and rate possible. The irony is that there are many modern tools and ways of conserving water that could stretch out the life of the aquifer, but they're not being utilized.
One of the biggest problems is that the decisions regarding use of the water is undemocratic. All inhabitants of the region will suffer when the water source is exhausted, but decisions regarding its use is limited to the few who own water rights. An additional irony is that about half of the population of the region is made up of a variety of minorities who are employed in the meatpacking and related industries, but water rights are own exclusively by a few whites and white owned corporations. And among the those who own water rights, the owners of the largest water rights are large corporations or individuals contracted to large corporations. It's a complicated story which can't be adequately explained by this review.
The book locates the author's boyhood home as being near the Cimarron River, but I was frustrated by the book's avoidance of naming any city and county names. I grew up in south-central Kansas so I wanted to know exactly where the author's home town was located. There's one place in the book where the author talks about Haskell County as being on the east side of county where his home was located. From that I have concluded that Ulysses, Kansas in Grant County is where he called home when he was young.
This book was a finalist for the 2021 National Book Award for Nonfiction.
An opinion piece from the Kansas City Star Newspaper on this subject:
https://eedition.kansascity.com/popov...
October 11, 2021
National Book Award for Nonfiction Shortlist 2021. Unsustainable irrigation farming has taxed much of the Ogallala aquifer beyond repair. Lucas Bessire returned to western Kansas where five generations of his family lived as irrigation farmers and ranchers to better understand the factors causing the depletion and the possible remedies. As an anthropologist, he approaches the aquifer crisis by focusing on the affected residents. What he found is that industrial agriculture, eroding democratic norms and ‘novel’ interpretations of the problem thwart responsible change.
Aquifer depletion is a problem facing a multitude of countries and is bound to get worse due to climate change. Recommend this timely analysis.
Aquifer depletion is a problem facing a multitude of countries and is bound to get worse due to climate change. Recommend this timely analysis.
October 19, 2021
I chose this book from the 2021 National Book Awards shortlist for several reasons. I’ve lived in Nebraska, above the Ogallala Aquifer. I’ve been raised in a farm family. I care about the effects of industrial farming on the welfare of Americans, our planet and our animals.
This book made me so angry! I don’t think most Americans know about the depletion of the aquifer and it’s wide ranging consequences. Would most Americans change their eating habits if they realized it would make a difference? The author includes accounts of historical events such as the Sandy Creek massacre and the Buffalo hunts of the 1800’s to link the region to expansion of the United States.
I appreciated the family narrative woven throughout the book linking the author, past generations if his family and their decisions to the vast change in landscape in southwestern Kansas. The anthropological examination of this community and their culture kept me reading.
I’ve been left with a lot of questions and ideas for research - Signs of a productive read!
This book made me so angry! I don’t think most Americans know about the depletion of the aquifer and it’s wide ranging consequences. Would most Americans change their eating habits if they realized it would make a difference? The author includes accounts of historical events such as the Sandy Creek massacre and the Buffalo hunts of the 1800’s to link the region to expansion of the United States.
I appreciated the family narrative woven throughout the book linking the author, past generations if his family and their decisions to the vast change in landscape in southwestern Kansas. The anthropological examination of this community and their culture kept me reading.
I’ve been left with a lot of questions and ideas for research - Signs of a productive read!
July 30, 2022
This is a short non-fic about an important topic of exhausting freshwater resources about which I heard very little, namely using deep underground aquifers. I read it as a part of buddy reads for July 2022 at Non Fiction Book Club group.
According to the author, groundwater extraction is draining aquifers across the globe, and most of this groundwater eventually makes its way to the sea. So much groundwater is pumped to the surface and drained into the oceans that it is now a major contributor to sea level rise, roughly on par with melting glaciers. And while most people heard about the melting polar caps and the fright of polar bears and other animals, the equally important source of the rise is mentioned much less often.
He decided to concentrate on a local issue, as an example of the global problem, namely using groundwater in his homeland – Kansas. His family has deep roots there and partially this book is an attempt to recognize the wrongdoing and atone for his family's sins, against both environment and previous inhabitants, human and animal.
The author travels (often accompanied by his father) across the state and tries to understand how to stop farmers from overusing groundwater. Around eleven thousand irrigation wells have transformed part of the former Great American Desert into the so-called breadbasket of the world, with Kansas’ agriculture generating several billion dollars of revenue each year. Nearly all of the shortgrass has been plowed into fields. Industrial agribusiness has remade this space in its own image. And all this is because of the ‘underground ocean’. An increase in output led to falling prices and therefore incomes. To compensate farmers turned to more intensive agriculture - every fall around October, a farmer harvests yellow corn. After harvest, fertilizer and pesticides are sprayed and the same ground is planted to triticale, a winter wheat-rye hybrid. After the spring triticale harvest, the same ground is plowed and again drenched with chemicals. It is then replanted to corn and watered until shortly before corn harvest. In this cycle, the earth never lies fallow. Large amounts of water are required, as are repeated doses of chemicals. And this brings prices even further down.
Farmers around the globe are usually hard-working no-nonsense people. However, the author’s chats with ones in Kansas showed that most of them understand the problem, even if not always able to stop overusing groundwater if they want to survive as a business. Just 2 percent of water users in Kansas in 2015-7 consumed 22% of the groundwater. Moreover, the investigation in Kansas found that the top users of the aquifer were large out-of-state agribusiness corporations and the tenant farmers who leased their land or farmed for shares at their direction. So blaming farmers is often just not seeing the true top users.
There are several digressions to other topics that relate to the history of this corner of Kansas, namely the destroying buffalo and killing Indians, the great Dustbowl of the 1930s as well as personal histories of his relatives. An interesting quick read.
According to the author, groundwater extraction is draining aquifers across the globe, and most of this groundwater eventually makes its way to the sea. So much groundwater is pumped to the surface and drained into the oceans that it is now a major contributor to sea level rise, roughly on par with melting glaciers. And while most people heard about the melting polar caps and the fright of polar bears and other animals, the equally important source of the rise is mentioned much less often.
He decided to concentrate on a local issue, as an example of the global problem, namely using groundwater in his homeland – Kansas. His family has deep roots there and partially this book is an attempt to recognize the wrongdoing and atone for his family's sins, against both environment and previous inhabitants, human and animal.
The author travels (often accompanied by his father) across the state and tries to understand how to stop farmers from overusing groundwater. Around eleven thousand irrigation wells have transformed part of the former Great American Desert into the so-called breadbasket of the world, with Kansas’ agriculture generating several billion dollars of revenue each year. Nearly all of the shortgrass has been plowed into fields. Industrial agribusiness has remade this space in its own image. And all this is because of the ‘underground ocean’. An increase in output led to falling prices and therefore incomes. To compensate farmers turned to more intensive agriculture - every fall around October, a farmer harvests yellow corn. After harvest, fertilizer and pesticides are sprayed and the same ground is planted to triticale, a winter wheat-rye hybrid. After the spring triticale harvest, the same ground is plowed and again drenched with chemicals. It is then replanted to corn and watered until shortly before corn harvest. In this cycle, the earth never lies fallow. Large amounts of water are required, as are repeated doses of chemicals. And this brings prices even further down.
Farmers around the globe are usually hard-working no-nonsense people. However, the author’s chats with ones in Kansas showed that most of them understand the problem, even if not always able to stop overusing groundwater if they want to survive as a business. Just 2 percent of water users in Kansas in 2015-7 consumed 22% of the groundwater. Moreover, the investigation in Kansas found that the top users of the aquifer were large out-of-state agribusiness corporations and the tenant farmers who leased their land or farmed for shares at their direction. So blaming farmers is often just not seeing the true top users.
There are several digressions to other topics that relate to the history of this corner of Kansas, namely the destroying buffalo and killing Indians, the great Dustbowl of the 1930s as well as personal histories of his relatives. An interesting quick read.
December 31, 2022
Lucas Bessire returns to the high plains of northwestern Kansas after finishing his Ph.d. He has a desire to reconnect with his emotionally distant father and visit the land where his family established is roots and farmed the land.
In order to farm in this area that receives little rain, the inhabitants must drill wells and reach the famous Ogallala aquifer. Lucas examines the depletion of the aquifer, the effect this depletion has on the nitrates in the soil, the impact of large corporate farming, and the power of greed.
Lucas interviews local farmers and investigates local, state, and federal water management policies. He also reads essays, letters, and publications written by his unusual great, great grandmother. Lucas finds much mismanagement of these policies that favor the large corporate farms.
This book was short listed for the National Book Award. Well worth reading. It rings an alarm bell about the negative effect of excessive pumping of the aquifer has on the environment.
In order to farm in this area that receives little rain, the inhabitants must drill wells and reach the famous Ogallala aquifer. Lucas examines the depletion of the aquifer, the effect this depletion has on the nitrates in the soil, the impact of large corporate farming, and the power of greed.
Lucas interviews local farmers and investigates local, state, and federal water management policies. He also reads essays, letters, and publications written by his unusual great, great grandmother. Lucas finds much mismanagement of these policies that favor the large corporate farms.
This book was short listed for the National Book Award. Well worth reading. It rings an alarm bell about the negative effect of excessive pumping of the aquifer has on the environment.
June 19, 2024
A difficult, realistic, and current expose of the water crisis in Southwest Kansas. This book adds another critical layer of understanding to my experience of the high plains. I’m almost intimately familiar with these land of far southwest Kansas, and the disturbing reality of human greed sucking generations of water out of the ground is painful to acknowledge. I’m glad there are some threads of hope in this writing, otherwise it would be quite depressing. I’ve considered writing something substantive about this same area as well, and if I do I’m certain these themes will be present
Read
September 23, 2022I honestly thought this book would be on the dry side. However, Bessire really connects the draining of the Ogallala Aquifer to society - even outside of agriculture today. Yes, agriculture a major focus along with the shift from family to corporate farming. Politics is of course a topic of major discussion with this book. Immigration and women's rights were also brought up in this book. It was actually a very interesting read on a problem more of us need to become aware.
How did this book find me?? It was a 2022 Kansas Notable Book. It is also a finalist for the 2021 National Book Award.
How did this book find me?? It was a 2022 Kansas Notable Book. It is also a finalist for the 2021 National Book Award.
October 12, 2021
Say aquifer to me again I dare you.
June 7, 2022
National Book Award for the nonfiction of the year 2021. MORE
The Ogallala aquafer has long supplied fresh drinking water, as well as plenty of water for crops (and livestock which was not mentioned in this book), to those on the high plains of the US without much thought. Therein lies the problem, the aquafer has been taken for granted for many generations of farmers and ranchers, but corporate greed has water-mined (depleted) this natural resource. It has not been sustained over the many generations of use or by large industry.
Lucas Bessire, an Anthropology Professor, returned to his family land in western Kansas to discover the water levels have been depleted beyond the ability to replete them in our lifetime (if ever). With climate change and other issues, this is serious and challenging for all residents of the high plains states (and the world) to survive without sufficient water.
Fact: The Ogallala aquafer supplies over 1/3 of the worlds grain produce, over 1/6 of the United States water, and over 1/10 (IIRC) of the worlds beef (BTW Nebraska beef is #1, with Kansas beef a close second!).
Highly recommend this short but deep read.
The Ogallala aquafer has long supplied fresh drinking water, as well as plenty of water for crops (and livestock which was not mentioned in this book), to those on the high plains of the US without much thought. Therein lies the problem, the aquafer has been taken for granted for many generations of farmers and ranchers, but corporate greed has water-mined (depleted) this natural resource. It has not been sustained over the many generations of use or by large industry.
Lucas Bessire, an Anthropology Professor, returned to his family land in western Kansas to discover the water levels have been depleted beyond the ability to replete them in our lifetime (if ever). With climate change and other issues, this is serious and challenging for all residents of the high plains states (and the world) to survive without sufficient water.
Fact: The Ogallala aquafer supplies over 1/3 of the worlds grain produce, over 1/6 of the United States water, and over 1/10 (IIRC) of the worlds beef (BTW Nebraska beef is #1, with Kansas beef a close second!).
Highly recommend this short but deep read.
June 15, 2024
Rounding up from 4.5 stars! I am admittedly a pretty ideal reader for this book which explores depletion of the Ogallala aquifer on the high plains of Kansas, partly through the author's relationship with his family and the land. The book is an honest and terrifying look at the state of water resources and the forces shaping extraction. At times, the writing is a bit heavy with introspection but the author's reflections resonated deeply with me. My favorite quote is "How do we take responsibility for the future we are making?"
October 20, 2021
This book fascinated me on many levels. I gave it 3 stars instead of 4 because of the more academic tone, which could have been more compelling at times. I also grew up on a farm on the plains that relies on irrigation water, some of which is from aquifer wells. The unknown amount of depletion of the Ogallala Aquifer, the politics of conservation (mostly those preventing it), the intersection of agribusiness, plains cultures, and environmental depletion…. I’m left feeling that the plains will be left without water at some point in the near future, causing tremendous upheaval to the people living there as well as global food supply chains. Why isn’t this being addressed? Why is this entire agricultural system propped up artificially, instead of remedying the underlying ecological disaster? Also note that the descriptions of the massacres of Native American and bison extermination in this book are quite difficult to read. What a brutal but recent history.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 25, 2024
This book was inspiring and heartbreaking and made me think of home and my family so so much.
April 19, 2022
Running Out by Lucas Bessire turned into a deep and haunting read for me. I thought it was a book about the Ogallala aquifer, but it is about so much more. I, like Bessire, grew up on the High Plains and quenched my thirst with water pumped from this aquifer. I, like Bessire, also trace my inheritance to the deep wells that irrigate commercial crops – a livelihood for my family for generations.
As an anthropologist, Bessire quickly reveals that this book will not only be about the mechanics, science and history of an aquifer; it is a story about depletion and about what one generation does to the next, and hauntingly, it is about what we do when we find we are active agents in this story.
If you did not grow up on the High Plains, you may wonder why any of this should matter much to you. A few quick facts revealed in the book: the Ogallala aquifer supports around one-sixth of the world’s grain produce, accounts for one-third of all irrigation in the United States, and is at great threat of running dry.
I initially expected the author to miss the nuance and complexity of both the people and systems behind production agriculture in the region; however, Bessire surprised me. While I may not agree with him on every point, he embarked on his journey into the depths of the Ogallala with an open mind and earnest approach. He makes that clear throughout the book.
To give you a taste of his writing style, which I found to be an additional and unsuspecting gem of this read, here is just one of many excerpts I underlined, dog-eared, and later reread:
“I realized I was still searching for a deeper kind of sustenance in the aquifer waters, too. Something about their destruction and the resulting absences was bringing me closer to the elements that made up my inheritance.”
I enjoyed having an anthropologist of my generation research and write about the people of the High Plains. It is hard to narrow down to one excerpt, but this one was particularly sharp:
“Depletive industry flourishes along these fault lines that turn us against the future, against each other, and against ourselves. What does it mean, then, if depletion itself may soon be one of the few common experiences that are shared by people on the High Plains?”
I’ll add one final call to action that I felt within my bones.
“We stand at a crossroads. In one direction lies the final eradication of the aquifer waters. In the other is a chance to share some of this ancient life force with the future. We know that practical alternatives to depletion abound. They lie on collective ground. The choice is ours to make. Time to do so is running out. If we fail to act, an emptied aquifer will change our lives for us. Whatever we decide, it will reverberate far beyond this time and place.”
If you give this book a read, you will learn about an aquifer running dry, but you will also learn about the culture and people of the High Plains, and quite possibly, a little about your own guilt. When we venture into our own past and look deep within the well of our ancestors, we may find the depletion of many ancient waters.
As an anthropologist, Bessire quickly reveals that this book will not only be about the mechanics, science and history of an aquifer; it is a story about depletion and about what one generation does to the next, and hauntingly, it is about what we do when we find we are active agents in this story.
If you did not grow up on the High Plains, you may wonder why any of this should matter much to you. A few quick facts revealed in the book: the Ogallala aquifer supports around one-sixth of the world’s grain produce, accounts for one-third of all irrigation in the United States, and is at great threat of running dry.
I initially expected the author to miss the nuance and complexity of both the people and systems behind production agriculture in the region; however, Bessire surprised me. While I may not agree with him on every point, he embarked on his journey into the depths of the Ogallala with an open mind and earnest approach. He makes that clear throughout the book.
To give you a taste of his writing style, which I found to be an additional and unsuspecting gem of this read, here is just one of many excerpts I underlined, dog-eared, and later reread:
“I realized I was still searching for a deeper kind of sustenance in the aquifer waters, too. Something about their destruction and the resulting absences was bringing me closer to the elements that made up my inheritance.”
I enjoyed having an anthropologist of my generation research and write about the people of the High Plains. It is hard to narrow down to one excerpt, but this one was particularly sharp:
“Depletive industry flourishes along these fault lines that turn us against the future, against each other, and against ourselves. What does it mean, then, if depletion itself may soon be one of the few common experiences that are shared by people on the High Plains?”
I’ll add one final call to action that I felt within my bones.
“We stand at a crossroads. In one direction lies the final eradication of the aquifer waters. In the other is a chance to share some of this ancient life force with the future. We know that practical alternatives to depletion abound. They lie on collective ground. The choice is ours to make. Time to do so is running out. If we fail to act, an emptied aquifer will change our lives for us. Whatever we decide, it will reverberate far beyond this time and place.”
If you give this book a read, you will learn about an aquifer running dry, but you will also learn about the culture and people of the High Plains, and quite possibly, a little about your own guilt. When we venture into our own past and look deep within the well of our ancestors, we may find the depletion of many ancient waters.
January 17, 2022
Actually I probably read this book a couple of time in 2 months. I love the region and the big sky. The author, Mr. Bessire is an native Kansan, with an PhD in Anthropology, he addresses Climate change and the depletion of the Ogallala aquifer, tying in the history of settlement in the region, native wildlife, and populations, mixed with his own personal experiences growing up there. He doesn't provide the answers, but examines the factors resulting in 24 hour pumping, double cropping, water rites and other practices that are rapidly depleting the aquafer, and will change life on the high plains forever, if the region does not adapt soon .
March 2, 2022
Stunning! The unbias, well researched, thorough presentation of the Ogallala aquifer - its history, early efforts to use, and the current state where we are extracting more water than the aquifer is capable to replenishing.
Truly the problem is big business and their bought politicians. Local farmers and activists are mistaken in directing their ire at each other.
A must read for anyone interested is sustainable practices.
Truly the problem is big business and their bought politicians. Local farmers and activists are mistaken in directing their ire at each other.
A must read for anyone interested is sustainable practices.
August 9, 2022
While investigating the depletion of the Ogallala aquifer, the author also investigates his own past in the Kansas area that his family farmed for generations. Reconnecting with his father, Bessire gets introductions and access to meetings as well as people on both sides of the decision regarding the future of the aquifer. The author's revisit to his home and searching through the writings of his grandmother - although seemingly connecting with the land and his family - seem more of a distraction although his descriptions of the prairie and remembrances of how it was decades and centuries ago - before the current troubled times - edge into wistful longing of the productive land that needed no chemical assistance or excessive watering.
Unfortunately, humans have a habit of using a resource to extinction - the bison with all the environmental impact and collateral damage. Now it's the water in the aquifer which is being drained faster than it can be replenished.
It is rather surprising that regional water management agencies make it difficult and expensive to make any action towards conservation as they encourage depletion and foster the interests of large corporate agrobusinesses. But still few farmers are working with university programs to attempt to work with nature and limiting excessive water usage.
For those farmers that are strongly committed to eradicating the aquifer, I have to wonder where the water for their crops will come from when all the wells pump dust. . . . Perhaps a governmental agency will wave a magic wand and abundant water will miraculously appear. . . .
2022-175
Unfortunately, humans have a habit of using a resource to extinction - the bison with all the environmental impact and collateral damage. Now it's the water in the aquifer which is being drained faster than it can be replenished.
It is rather surprising that regional water management agencies make it difficult and expensive to make any action towards conservation as they encourage depletion and foster the interests of large corporate agrobusinesses. But still few farmers are working with university programs to attempt to work with nature and limiting excessive water usage.
For those farmers that are strongly committed to eradicating the aquifer, I have to wonder where the water for their crops will come from when all the wells pump dust. . . . Perhaps a governmental agency will wave a magic wand and abundant water will miraculously appear. . . .
2022-175
October 13, 2021
Informative, luminous, and haunting: this take on systematic but avoidable aquifer depletion in southwest Kansas is not just a fact-filled journalistic report from an outsider. Bessire is an anthropology professor who has deep family connections here. His own ancestors were both actively involved in the irreversible exploitation and also, in the case of his grandmother, taking an opposite view, trying to provide some sanity and respect for the earth's resources. He shows how those trying to reduce the mindless depletion are excluded from policy decisions and ignored. The multiple meanings of "running out"--running out of water, running out of time, those who are pumping the water running out on their responsibilities to future generations, and more--makes the book riveting.
One significant omission, however, is that, although recognizing that all the pumping is to sustain agriculture, the author doesn't explore in depth that it all goes to livestock agriculture. Far less resources would be needed if farmers would transition to crops for direct human consumption. He does mention one who switched to hemp oil, a tiny step in the right direction.
Running Out very much deserves its place on the shortlist for this year's National Book Award in Nonfiction.
One significant omission, however, is that, although recognizing that all the pumping is to sustain agriculture, the author doesn't explore in depth that it all goes to livestock agriculture. Far less resources would be needed if farmers would transition to crops for direct human consumption. He does mention one who switched to hemp oil, a tiny step in the right direction.
Running Out very much deserves its place on the shortlist for this year's National Book Award in Nonfiction.
February 3, 2022
I originally found this on Hoopla--I wanted to read it (and about half of the NBA nonfiction longlist), and there it was! I don't usually listen to nonfiction because I read the notes, but this was fairly memoir-ish.
And this book is excellent, if hard to read. So much is about destruction and willful ignorance. From removing and massacring different Indian groups, to the killing off of the bison within just a few years, rattlesnake and jackrabbit roundups, the plowing of the shortgrass prairie and the dustbowl, to now emptying the aquifer and intentionally wasting water.
And then when I got to the end, it said to get then physical book for the notes and sources, argh! So, I did. Fortunately my library did not have a queue. And--there are maps and photos! I think this is definitely better on paper, because looking at the pictures--and seeing the maps--after the fact was not the greatest. The narrator also was not a favorite (though, frustratingly, he has done several books I am interested in!)--his tone very much sounds like he is talking down to or lecturing the reader. I got used to it though, his pronunciations were fine.
And this book is excellent, if hard to read. So much is about destruction and willful ignorance. From removing and massacring different Indian groups, to the killing off of the bison within just a few years, rattlesnake and jackrabbit roundups, the plowing of the shortgrass prairie and the dustbowl, to now emptying the aquifer and intentionally wasting water.
And then when I got to the end, it said to get then physical book for the notes and sources, argh! So, I did. Fortunately my library did not have a queue. And--there are maps and photos! I think this is definitely better on paper, because looking at the pictures--and seeing the maps--after the fact was not the greatest. The narrator also was not a favorite (though, frustratingly, he has done several books I am interested in!)--his tone very much sounds like he is talking down to or lecturing the reader. I got used to it though, his pronunciations were fine.
October 26, 2021
Water mining -- that's the phrase I learned from this book. The significant negative implications, the extent of the depletion of the acquifers is the midwest (and around the world as the introductory and final chapters discuss) is scary and problematic. The book is a bit meandering as it combines memoir with fact finding. One point Bessire nails is that exploitation has been with us from the beginning: from the killing of the buffalo, genocide of the indigenous people, and continuing through adoption of industrial farming/depletion of the aquifers.
January 14, 2022
Short but complex book tackles the growing issue of water where the West begins on the High Plains.
The author comes from many generations of farmers in SW Kansas and that gives him access to numerous people in the region willing to speak. A complicated relationship between the author and his father runs through the story as the author drills into his family tree and how the region's economic forces play a key role in keeping the wells pumping.
The author comes from many generations of farmers in SW Kansas and that gives him access to numerous people in the region willing to speak. A complicated relationship between the author and his father runs through the story as the author drills into his family tree and how the region's economic forces play a key role in keeping the wells pumping.
September 5, 2022
Smart intricate blend of personal and family memoir, current anthropology/sociology about farmers and corporations and pumped aquifer irrigation in SW Kansas, and history of depletion and extinction for water, first peoples, and bison.
April 10, 2022
A blend of poetic writing, firsthand experience, and the latest science. Lots of highlights from this one.
April 5, 2023
This is a must read for anyone who had the pleasure of growing up in Southwest Kansas like I did. The abuse of our planet is so plain when you drive through the far reaches of SW KS, in the place where this author grew up. I could picture most of the places he spoke about, and then I was shocked by other descriptions-- like the unnatural sand dunes that exist now where farmers took money to let their fields return to native grass, but then didn't follow the progam to rotate crops and plant the grass as they promised. I wondered if I knew the men he interviewed who deny reality because they are making money amidst the imminent ruin. It is so depressing and shocking and incredible and sick.
October 5, 2021
I grew up in Kansas so I have a special appreciation for this slim book on water. I smiled at Bessire's return to Kansas to report on the water depletion and the interviews he was granted based solely on his father's relationship with the neighbors. And how those interviewees questioned his marital and church-going status as well as discussed the fate of farmland that had been in families for generations.
This is about our human impact on climate. And it's also a human interest story. Bessire comes across as humble and thoughtful and looks at his and his family's history in Kansas through a contemporary and intersectional eye.
I only knew about this from the National Book Award and hope others will read it too.
This is about our human impact on climate. And it's also a human interest story. Bessire comes across as humble and thoughtful and looks at his and his family's history in Kansas through a contemporary and intersectional eye.
I only knew about this from the National Book Award and hope others will read it too.
December 14, 2021
Anyone who cares about climate change and local politics, water, farming, and the state of the planet should read this book. I picked this up after driving across Kansas twice this summer; I was hoping to learn more about a way of life this is pretty foreign to me, but one that I had glimpsed from the highway driving 70 miles an hour: feedlots, rolling grass hills, pronghorn, irrigation. Bessire’s beautiful and personal story of a farming generation confronting (and avoiding) the depletion of the Oglala aquifer describes a whole world of people like you and me faced with the end of a way of life. In applying his anthropologist’s training to the place he grew up, he clarifies the issues, suggests some solutions, and concludes that we are all complicit in the depredations that began with Native American and bison genocide and may end with desertification of the Plains. But being complicit also means we can be part of the solution. His descriptions of southwest Kansas reveal a beauty that might not be obvious to most of us, but it is one that compels deep love for the place. I wish this book had never ended and I hope it wins awards.
July 26, 2022
The water in Western Kansas is running out, in a classic tragedy of the commons fashion. The problem with aquifer water is that it is very hard to know how they run underground.
1: All the farmers just pump all they can, because it is inevitable.
2. Insurance payouts are higher for irrigated crops. So irrigate.
3. The board that oversees water management consist of rich elite agro-business people. So they don’t really restrict pumping of water
4. Big agro-investors aim for short term profit and do not really care about long term aquifer water depletion
5. Only land owners have access to aquifer water. So the rich who own lots of land, or Big farmers can control the votes easily
Solution:
1. Grow crops that have much higher yield per water use
2. Use technology to not over irrigate - sometimes it can even increase yield
3. Use genetically modified crops that require less water
4: Allow other stakeholders, such as people living in the region, to also vote.
Otherwise, water will run out and Kansas will turn into desert.
1: All the farmers just pump all they can, because it is inevitable.
2. Insurance payouts are higher for irrigated crops. So irrigate.
3. The board that oversees water management consist of rich elite agro-business people. So they don’t really restrict pumping of water
4. Big agro-investors aim for short term profit and do not really care about long term aquifer water depletion
5. Only land owners have access to aquifer water. So the rich who own lots of land, or Big farmers can control the votes easily
Solution:
1. Grow crops that have much higher yield per water use
2. Use technology to not over irrigate - sometimes it can even increase yield
3. Use genetically modified crops that require less water
4: Allow other stakeholders, such as people living in the region, to also vote.
Otherwise, water will run out and Kansas will turn into desert.
March 1, 2024
This is one of the best academic books I have read in some time. A sublime combination of ethnographic sensibility and literary skill. I not only learned about an urgent and timely topic but was deeply touched by the writing and the author's experiences.
"Call it out for what it is, they told me, and let the chips fall where they may."
"Call it out for what it is, they told me, and let the chips fall where they may."
June 4, 2024
Running Out is a story about a loss in both the literal and metaphorical sense. The author returns to his childhood home in West Kansas to visit his estranged father and the prairie farm life he left behind. The farming community he grew up in depends on the Ogallala aquifer for its existence. The aquifer is a vast underground water source compared to America's Great Lakes in terms of the amount of freshwater it holds. It covers several states and, in some places, is hundreds of feet deep. Midwestern farmers have been tapping into it for the better part of a century. Because it recharges at an extremely slow rate, the aquifer has been steadily depleted to the point where it is non-existent in many places it was once believed to be limitless. In this book, the author chronicles this loss and how it parallels the personal loss in his life.
This book was a difficult read for me not because of the writing style, which is straightforward and enjoyable, but rather due to the overwhelming feeling of loss that permeates the narrative. The title of the three sections gives the reader a feel for it. Part one is entitled “Lines” and covers the dispossession of the Native Americans of the land in the late 19th century and the violence connected to the conclusion of America’s settler colonial project on the Great Plains. Part two, “Bones” tells the story of the extermination of the Bison on the Great Plains, which was connected to the dispossession of the Native Americans. Part three, “Dust,” deals with the environmental degradation of the Plains state. These parts are connected by their themes of loss and are interspersed throughout the story. They are the author's own stories of his family's difficulties living in this changing and shrinking environment and their own complicity in its degradation. As I read through the book I felt increasingly overwhelmed by the weight of the subject while, at the same time, I was fascinated by it, kind of like a traffic accident that you cannot help but stare at. Throughout the book, Bessire tells stories of his grandmother and the journals she kept as a young woman, charting the loss of the aquifer and the changes she saw in her own time. The author also travels around to visit his old childhood haunts to see how they have changed and stayed the same. To me, this is the book's redeeming quality and what makes it so good. The final part of the book “Clouds' 'contains the author's reflection on his own family's experiences of living on the Great Plains and how people are realizing that the aquifer and their livelihoods are in danger. He points out that while it may be too late to return the aquifer and the environment to its former state, the realization that it is happening and the efforts to stop the loss are signs of positive change. There is also the sense that among all the loss, the author managed to rekindle a relationship with his father and find something out about his family through his grandmother's diaries that he did not know before, and that gives him a greater appreciation and understanding of his relatives and their actions.
Running Out is not just a story of loss, but also a testament to the resilience of the human spirit. Lucas Bessire weaves these two seemingly contradictory narratives together, showing that hope can be found even in the face of profound loss. This juxtaposition of somber and inspiring elements makes the book a compelling read.
This book was a difficult read for me not because of the writing style, which is straightforward and enjoyable, but rather due to the overwhelming feeling of loss that permeates the narrative. The title of the three sections gives the reader a feel for it. Part one is entitled “Lines” and covers the dispossession of the Native Americans of the land in the late 19th century and the violence connected to the conclusion of America’s settler colonial project on the Great Plains. Part two, “Bones” tells the story of the extermination of the Bison on the Great Plains, which was connected to the dispossession of the Native Americans. Part three, “Dust,” deals with the environmental degradation of the Plains state. These parts are connected by their themes of loss and are interspersed throughout the story. They are the author's own stories of his family's difficulties living in this changing and shrinking environment and their own complicity in its degradation. As I read through the book I felt increasingly overwhelmed by the weight of the subject while, at the same time, I was fascinated by it, kind of like a traffic accident that you cannot help but stare at. Throughout the book, Bessire tells stories of his grandmother and the journals she kept as a young woman, charting the loss of the aquifer and the changes she saw in her own time. The author also travels around to visit his old childhood haunts to see how they have changed and stayed the same. To me, this is the book's redeeming quality and what makes it so good. The final part of the book “Clouds' 'contains the author's reflection on his own family's experiences of living on the Great Plains and how people are realizing that the aquifer and their livelihoods are in danger. He points out that while it may be too late to return the aquifer and the environment to its former state, the realization that it is happening and the efforts to stop the loss are signs of positive change. There is also the sense that among all the loss, the author managed to rekindle a relationship with his father and find something out about his family through his grandmother's diaries that he did not know before, and that gives him a greater appreciation and understanding of his relatives and their actions.
Running Out is not just a story of loss, but also a testament to the resilience of the human spirit. Lucas Bessire weaves these two seemingly contradictory narratives together, showing that hope can be found even in the face of profound loss. This juxtaposition of somber and inspiring elements makes the book a compelling read.
December 30, 2022
This is a hard book. It’s hard in that the author writes in a fairly dense academic style. It’s also hard because of its subject: the depletion of water from the ancient Ogallala aquifer that underlies the High Plains, including much of western Kansas.
Kansas Notable Book award winner and National Book Award finalist Bessire weaves tidbits of his personal life and family into conversations with Kansas farmers who give life and depth to the area’s historic legacy. He intersperses his evident affinity for the High Plains with the science that surrounds the Ogallala aquifer and its life-giving water. The author is on a quest, and it was not yet won with the publication of this book.
What the author has done incredibly well is to present a clear and even-handed portrait of the majestic Ogallala aquifer: what it was, how it originated, what it is now, and why it is fast disappearing. He is precise and accurate in recounting what has led to the demise of the irreplaceable water source. Bessire presents without prejudice varying points of view from people who literally are boots on the ground and living with the day to day reality of losing their only source of water.
The author’s unique perspective is informed in part by his deep Kansas roots. He is a sixth generation Kansan. Like many small-town Kansans, Bessire ‘got the heck outta Dodge’ as soon as he could, and thought he’d never look back. Returning to Kansas to mend fences with his father, Bessire finds a common bond: aquifer depletion. The author’s grandmother, to whom he dedicated the book, left her writings and notes about the history of the area. He incorporates much of her musings, adding yet another facet to the story.
The point of no return, of running out of water in the foreseeable future, has already arrived in western Kansas. The situation is dire in regard to running out. Recharging the aquifer cannot occur in tandem with current agricultural practices. Essentially we have reached the end of a non-renewable resource.
Yet there is hope, and Bessire finds hope in his grandmother’s writings. He also presents current examples of people and places making groundwater conservation work. He decries politics of blame and encourages politics of responsibility, while at the same time exposing how corporate agriculture couldn’t care less about water conservation. He contrasts this with the diverse practices and opinions of small Kansas family farmers.
I said at the beginning that this is a hard book. Perhaps the hardest aspect is embracing Bessire’s unique way of telling his intertwined personal and ecological stories. I found it absolutely worth the time to read a bit, digest, consider… then go back and read a bit more and reflect.
Watch a Humanities Kansas author talk with Lucas Bessire on YouTube hosted by Jeremy Gill at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_dFN....
Kansas Notable Book award winner and National Book Award finalist Bessire weaves tidbits of his personal life and family into conversations with Kansas farmers who give life and depth to the area’s historic legacy. He intersperses his evident affinity for the High Plains with the science that surrounds the Ogallala aquifer and its life-giving water. The author is on a quest, and it was not yet won with the publication of this book.
What the author has done incredibly well is to present a clear and even-handed portrait of the majestic Ogallala aquifer: what it was, how it originated, what it is now, and why it is fast disappearing. He is precise and accurate in recounting what has led to the demise of the irreplaceable water source. Bessire presents without prejudice varying points of view from people who literally are boots on the ground and living with the day to day reality of losing their only source of water.
The author’s unique perspective is informed in part by his deep Kansas roots. He is a sixth generation Kansan. Like many small-town Kansans, Bessire ‘got the heck outta Dodge’ as soon as he could, and thought he’d never look back. Returning to Kansas to mend fences with his father, Bessire finds a common bond: aquifer depletion. The author’s grandmother, to whom he dedicated the book, left her writings and notes about the history of the area. He incorporates much of her musings, adding yet another facet to the story.
The point of no return, of running out of water in the foreseeable future, has already arrived in western Kansas. The situation is dire in regard to running out. Recharging the aquifer cannot occur in tandem with current agricultural practices. Essentially we have reached the end of a non-renewable resource.
Yet there is hope, and Bessire finds hope in his grandmother’s writings. He also presents current examples of people and places making groundwater conservation work. He decries politics of blame and encourages politics of responsibility, while at the same time exposing how corporate agriculture couldn’t care less about water conservation. He contrasts this with the diverse practices and opinions of small Kansas family farmers.
I said at the beginning that this is a hard book. Perhaps the hardest aspect is embracing Bessire’s unique way of telling his intertwined personal and ecological stories. I found it absolutely worth the time to read a bit, digest, consider… then go back and read a bit more and reflect.
Watch a Humanities Kansas author talk with Lucas Bessire on YouTube hosted by Jeremy Gill at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_dFN....
December 9, 2021
This is a bit of an unusual nonfiction book on this topic, in that it’s not just a factual examination of the depletion of the Ogallala aquifer, but a story that twines that problem together with the author reconnecting with his father, a Great Plains farmer, as he examines this problem for his book.
My favorite, though some of the saddest, parts of the book were those examining the time when the Great Plains belonged to buffalo and the various Native nations that called it home. The current water depletion, the Dust Bowl 90 years ago, all of those are trickle down effects from when the native ecosystem of the Great Plains was destroyed. I had no clue how absolutely vicious the buffalo slaughter by white settlers was until I read this book. The mental image of all those bones, that entire ecosystem ruined by greed and racial hatred, is haunting. I come from a hunting family that has always eaten what we killed and respected the seasons, but this is the opposite of that—absolute waste and decimation. And now we pay the price, because there is no grass, there are no buffalo, and the Native knowledge of stewarding it is gone or repressed, so the land dries up and blows, and the aquifer responsible for a huge amount of grain production may soon be gone forever.
The main reason I gave this 3 stars rather than more is that it’s a rather difficult to read book, including many wordy and opaque sentences. (“Confining facticity to opposed partisan worlds renders rational argument ineffective and narrows shared concern.” — I can figure out the intent, but this could have been written SO much more clearly.) But alongside that almost academic tone, it also has some weird passages that are pretty surreal—one of a sort of ghostly dream, and another one in which he described a memory of a board meeting on water depletion:
“As I revisit the images in my mind’s eye, I can almost recall the bodies of those present beginning to swell with each muted word and how the fleshy membranes slowly but inexorably filled the room and ballooned against ears and eyes and mouths and bricks until the bloated sacs, by then no longer recognizably human at all, broke through the walls and over the asphalt and past the grain elevators and the meat-packing plants and spread gurgling to the floodplains of the dry river that bordered the town, where they snagged on a patch of dead willows and then ruptured their contents into the absorbent and purifying sands.”
That’s a very strange and melodramatic way to describe a board meeting. And it doesn’t really help me understand water depletion.
My favorite, though some of the saddest, parts of the book were those examining the time when the Great Plains belonged to buffalo and the various Native nations that called it home. The current water depletion, the Dust Bowl 90 years ago, all of those are trickle down effects from when the native ecosystem of the Great Plains was destroyed. I had no clue how absolutely vicious the buffalo slaughter by white settlers was until I read this book. The mental image of all those bones, that entire ecosystem ruined by greed and racial hatred, is haunting. I come from a hunting family that has always eaten what we killed and respected the seasons, but this is the opposite of that—absolute waste and decimation. And now we pay the price, because there is no grass, there are no buffalo, and the Native knowledge of stewarding it is gone or repressed, so the land dries up and blows, and the aquifer responsible for a huge amount of grain production may soon be gone forever.
The main reason I gave this 3 stars rather than more is that it’s a rather difficult to read book, including many wordy and opaque sentences. (“Confining facticity to opposed partisan worlds renders rational argument ineffective and narrows shared concern.” — I can figure out the intent, but this could have been written SO much more clearly.) But alongside that almost academic tone, it also has some weird passages that are pretty surreal—one of a sort of ghostly dream, and another one in which he described a memory of a board meeting on water depletion:
“As I revisit the images in my mind’s eye, I can almost recall the bodies of those present beginning to swell with each muted word and how the fleshy membranes slowly but inexorably filled the room and ballooned against ears and eyes and mouths and bricks until the bloated sacs, by then no longer recognizably human at all, broke through the walls and over the asphalt and past the grain elevators and the meat-packing plants and spread gurgling to the floodplains of the dry river that bordered the town, where they snagged on a patch of dead willows and then ruptured their contents into the absorbent and purifying sands.”
That’s a very strange and melodramatic way to describe a board meeting. And it doesn’t really help me understand water depletion.
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