I didn't mean to single out almonds -- as you say, virtually all of California's agriculture is water-guzzling, and only sustainable because farms with seniority get substantial use-it-or-lose-it discounts on their water bills.
We need to end this across the board. If you can't produce something in the valley while paying a fair price for water, you shouldn't be producing it in the valley. Make something else, make it somewhere that's not drought-prone, or raise your prices to account for the water that goes into producing the product.
Re:How Growers Gamed California’s Drought
by dreamweapon on Wednesday April 01, 2015 @12:06PM
(#9304642)
I totally agree about making price levels reflect true resource costs, ending bad incentivization systems, etc. (Meant to edit my first post to mention that, but got distracted).
It's highly misleading to suggest that the net impact of cycling a gallon of agricultural water (including irrigation + rainfall) is equal to that of a dumping a gallon of drinking water (packaged and delivered to your door, no less!) down the drain, of course.
Also, while the water footprint of almonds (and pistachios, cashews, etc) isn't great, if you aren't comparing it to that of other high-impact foods (in terms of water use by weight of end product) like say, dried tomatoes, butter, or most four-legged meat products -- not only per gram of end product, but per recommended serving (which for nut products is comparatively modest) -- then you're not only not helping us understand how we got into this mess (and how to get out); you're just pushing people's buttons, basically.