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New documentary tracks how water from the Southwest US ends up halfway around the world

Farmer Gao Yongfei owns a herd of 5,500 pigs in the town of Yueqing, in China's southeastern Zhejiang province. Farms near his have lost hundreds of pigs to the African swine fever.
Rob Schmitz
/
NPR
Pigs are seen at a farm in China.

You’ve probably read headlines or heard stories about Colorado River water being exported from the arid Southwest to countries worldwide.

It happens in the form of hay grown using that water.

Stories like that are at the heart of a documentary coming out on October 10 on Hulu. It’s called The Grab, written and directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite.

She also made Blackfish, the 2013 documentary about orcas that completely changed the way the whales are captured and kept.

The Grab features the work of Nathan Halverson, a senior reporter and producer at the Center for Investigative Reporting. Halverson uncovered the Chinese government’s role in making sure a quarter of pigs raised in America go to China.

It led him on an eight-year journey from Zambia to Ukraine and Arizona, looking at the global food market — and who controls the land and water needed to meet demand.


Guests: Gabriela Cowperthwaite, writer and director, The Grab; Nathan Halverson, senior reporter and producer, Center for Investigative Reporting

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Desert Companion welcomed Heidi Kyser as staff writer in January 2014. In 2024, Heidi was promoted to managing editor, charged with overseeing the Desert Companion and State of Nevada newsrooms.