I am a big fan of Bill Maher- ever since he was on network TV.  (Now, he’s on HBO.)

And, a few weeks ago, he had a great segment on the drought in California.

And, although I knew almonds used a sh..load of water, it took Bill’s diatribe to let the facts hit me between the eyes.   And, I stopped adding to my grocery cart the two to four pounds of almonds purchased every week- my go to snack during the workday.  Because at 1900 gallons per pound of water, it is way too selfish and foolhardy for folks like me to use such quantities of water- whether or not it in short supply like it is now.  (Another way of saying the same thing is that an acre of almond trees sucks up some 1.3 million gallons of water each year.  Or- that almond production uses more water annually than every soul living in San Francisco and Los Angeles combined.)

It’s not just me that’s reacting to this shortage.  California farmers are bulldozing acres of almond orchards- mostly because they can’t get the water they need.  Even though almonds are among the most profitable crops California farmers produced.  (And California produced some 80% of the world’s supply, for total revenue of some $ 6 billion.  [That’s about $ 2 a pound wholesale.]  The amount of water represented by this business is some 5.9 billion gallons of water or some 16 million gallons of water a day.)

And, as Bill Maher noted, these almond farms are not the mom and pop entities our brains conceive when we think of American farmers.  These are big agribusiness concerns.

Let’s compare the water used to grow almonds to other crops.  Strawberries consumes some ½% of what the almonds use per pound- or some 9.8 gallons of water per pound.  Tomatoes scarf up 10.8 gallons per pound, while oranges use a little more at 12.2 gallons per pound.  All of them, infinitesimally small compared to the almond water demand.

Another fact- while agriculture gobbles up some 80% of the water used in California- it only contributes 2% to its economy.  Obviously NOT the best use of those water resources.  So, it’s a good thing that almond farmers are giving up their trees and seeking alternative crops.

Although for different reasons, it’s like the conversion of Virginia and Carolina farms in the 80s and 90s from growing tobacco to choosing corn, cauliflower, and other cash crops.

Also happened past the time it should.

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