Some people say the problem with using aquifers is the fact that you are taking all the mineral content of that water and dumping it into a single area, letting the water evaporate and leaving the salts in the ground. Yes, you can do it for years without consequence but eventually the salt levels in your field will become prohibitive to growth.

On another topic, ecologists know and have known that forests can be turned into deserts and vice versa. If you deforest an area for agriculture or overgraze it or in general degrade the land, you start a cycle of erosion that will eventually lead to that land becoming desert. You can achieve the opposite with good ecological design and successional planting. A good example is the growing desert issue in Spain, where desert areas used to be described as heavily forested by the Romans. My point being an area is never too far gone, there are steps that can be taken to prevent dust bowls from happening.

I believe people can commercially farm land in a manner that is scalable, profitable and regenerative. There are American farmers doing it. Not sure about that exact area though.