5 ms·

Farming is important. Growing Almonds in the desert isn't.

• eigenket 5y ago
  Growing cows you mean. Half of California's water usage is growing alfalfa to feed to cattle. Not half of agricultural usage, half of total usage. The almond thing is basically a meme in comparison. Not that the almond farms shouldn't also be made to deal with this. Someone else in this thread mentioned Israeli almond farms that use 1/20 of the water the Californian ones do because they have smarter methods of irrigation.
  • acdha 5y ago
    > Half of California's water usage is growing alfalfa to feed to cattle. Not half of agricultural usage, half of total usage. Do you have a cite for that? The figures I’ve put half of the total usage at environmental, with agricultural use at 40% total. https://cwc.ca.gov/-/media/CWC-Website/Files/Documents/2019/06_June/June2019_Item_12_Attach_2_PPICFactSheets.pdf?la=en&hash=E233EA870DFB826F235B258177849300179E1B64 https://cwc.ca.gov/-/media/CWC-Website/Files/Documents/2019/... These figures appear to be recent and show alfalfa to be the third most water-intensive crop, with nuts getting a lot of attention because that usage has been going up dramatically over the last couple of decades as farmers planted new trees at a rapid pace. https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/specialsections/these-are-the-california-crops-that-use-the-most-water/ https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/specialsections/these-...
• chrisseaton 5y ago
  Why is it always almonds people go on about? https://californiaglobe.com/section-2/blaming-almonds-for-californias-water-shortage-is-just-nuts/ https://californiaglobe.com/section-2/blaming-almonds-for-ca...
  • imtringued 5y ago
    Because people don't eat cattle feed. The fundamental problem is a self centered world view.
• deleted 5y ago
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