It Takes How Much Water to Grow an Almond?! {very, very large images}

[xchrom]

http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/02/wheres-californias-water-going



California, supplier of nearly half of all US fruits, veggies, and nuts, is on track to experience the driest year in the past half millennium. Farms use about 80 percent of the state's "developed water," or water that's moved from its natural source to other areas via pipes and aqueducts.

As the maps above show, much of California's agriculture is concentrated in the parts of the state that the drought has hit the hardest. For example: Monterey County, which is currently enduring an "exceptional drought," according to the US Drought Monitor, grew nearly half of America's lettuce and broccoli in 2012.

When it comes to water use, not all plants are created equal. Here's how much water some of California's major crops require:

[stuntcat]

1. oh no I get walnuts all the time

The price will be going up I guess going up a lot.

[progressoid]

2. and California produces 80% of the world's almonds

[hedgehog]

6. My husband brought me some marzipan from Germany -

I read the label and it was made with California almonds.

[malthaussen]

3. Living next door to New Jersey as I do...

... I had no idea California produced 90% of US tomatoes.

-- Mal

[MyNameGoesHere]

5. Don't worry CHina is the worlds leader

on most veggie production. And Spain can pick up the slack on almonds.

[Catherine Vincent]

4. Didn't know this

Hopefully those R's that constantly state they want CA to fall into the ocean or some nonsense like that will read that article.

[rwsanders]

10. Won't matter to them, they're OK w/o the iceberg lettuce and tasteless tomatoes on their big mac.

Last edited Mon Feb 24, 2014, 05:06 PM - Edit history (1)

And as long as they can eat their fries w/o ketchup they'll never notice.
Tater tots are a veggie yaknow (Thanks Bush).

[proverbialwisdom]

7. Via Robyn O'Brien: Half of U.S. Farmland Being Eyed by Private Equity

From: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Robyn-OBrien/93865123205

http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/02/half-u-s-farmland-eyed-private-equity/

Half of U.S. Farmland Being Eyed by Private Equity

By Carey L. Biron

WASHINGTON, Feb 19 2014 (IPS) - An estimated 400 million acres of farmland in the United States will likely change hands over the coming two decades as older farmers retire, even as new evidence indicates this land is being strongly pursued by private equity investors.

Mirroring a trend being experienced across the globe, this strengthening focus on agriculture-related investment by the private sector is already leading to a spike in U.S. farmland prices. Coupled with relatively weak federal policies, these rising prices are barring many young farmers from continuing or starting up small-scale agricultural operations of their own.

"This is no longer necessarily about food at all, but rather is a way to reap financial profits."
-- Anuradha Mittal

In the long term, critics say, this dynamic could speed up the already fast-consolidating U.S. food industry, with broad ramifications for both human and environmental health.

<>

[A HERETIC I AM]

8. It's not just the fruit and nuts, it's the leaves too.

I don't know if the water use figures include that, but to make all the orchards and vineyards turn from the brown they are now to the vibrant green they are when harvest time comes....

It is amazing how much water is used, no doubt.

[JEB]

9. If it's yellow, let it mellow.

We need to stop wasting so much water. How much water goes to golf?

[eppur_se_muova]

11. How much of the cost of this water is subsidized ?

I remember reading in "Cadillac Desert" that some of the irrigation water in CA is 90% subsidized (*may be outdated info*), without which these corporate farms couldn't compete with Eastern farms. The result is that water is wasted on crops that use water very inefficiently -- even diverted to horse pasturage !

[Tumbulu]

12. But the plants producing the nuts are

also turning CO2 into oxygen, which we all need. Veggies use huge amounts of water, the row crops less, and tree crops even less per acre. Most of the almonds are on drip systems.

If the water as not being used to grow plants, which sequester carbon, where would we be? Where will we be this year with such a vast area in the west not getting water and thus not growing the plants that we are depending on to take up some of this excess CO2?