Almond Drought?

Photo by Rob Stanard
  • you may have heard that California is currently experiencing a bit of a drought
  • just a bit
  • and perhaps you’ve also heard that almond production is part of the problem
  • well
  • perhaps not
  • some say it takes a gallon of water to produce one almond
  • some also say that almond production takes up 10% of California’s already minimal water supply
  • and yeah, it makes sense that almonds would come under fire
  • it’s a $4.8 billion dollar market
  • farmers are literally ripping out their annual crops to switch over to orchards
  • but the problem is
  • you can’t just fallow an orchard for a year

Photo by Marty Hamilton

  • almonds constitute 13% of California’s irrigated farmland
  • but use only 9% of the agricultural water source
  • so they actually use less than their proportionate share
  • perhaps
  • if it weren’t for the drought
  • we wouldn’t be talking about almonds at all

Are these nutritious nuts merely being used as a scape goat? The California Almond Board claims that farmers have decreased their water usage in almond crops by 33% over the course of the last two decades and that they are practicing water conservative farming. So what’s all the fuss about the almond? And who can we listen to? Of course the California Almond Board wants to make almonds seem like they’re not al that bad because without almonds there would be no California Almond Board. Perhaps there really is no problem with almond growing and the entirety of the drought can be attributed to El Niño. This is really just a lesson in knowing where your information is coming from. Whether you read an article on water usage from the good people at the Almond Board or an angry blog post by an alfalfa farmer who’s government water supply has been cut, know that their facts and figures are going to be skewed one way or another and take them for what they’re worth.

Sources

“Get The Facts about Almonds and Water.” Almond Board of California. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Mar. 2016. <http://www.almonds.com/get-facts-about-almonds-and-water?gclid=CjwKEAjww9O3BRDp1tq0jIP023YSJAB0-j1SYo5ruhoamhEQgC2B6lMXQpYpjMYJuGsntljrL2pIjRoCqNbw_wcB>.

“How Almonds Became A Scapegoat For California’s Drought.” NPR. NPR, n.d. Web. 26 Mar. 2016. <http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/04/16/399958203/how-almonds-became-a-scapegoat-for-californias-drought>.