Lyn Raible: Almond exports required 490 billion gallons of water; this is nonsense

As I read articles regarding water, almonds and farmers, I am left with the following thoughts. First, farmers are individuals who live near the land on which they farm. I consider companies from outside the community that buy thousands of acres of pastureland, sink hundreds of aquifer-depleting wells and plant thousands of almond trees to be agribusinesses, not farmers. Far as I can tell, they have little regard for the long-term health of the community or smaller farmers living within.

Second, it is misleading to compare new orchards to the water needs of other crops. Many of these orchards did not replace other crops, but replaced unirrigated pastureland.

Third, almond agribusinesses use a limited water resources to create their crop, two thirds of which is shipped out of the country. According to the California Almond Board, 1.28 billion pounds were shipped out in 2013.

It takes a gallon of water to produce an almond. There are roughly 384 almonds per pound. That’s 384 gallons per pound. That means the 1.28 billion pounds of almonds required over 490 billion gallons of water. I don’t want to use 490 billion gallons of water to supply a luxury food to other countries while in the middle of a drought.

This story was originally published April 2, 2015 at 12:16 PM with the headline "Lyn Raible: Almond exports required 490 billion gallons of water; this is nonsense."