Almonds cover 20,000 acres of Kings County land, but when you drive by the orchards, do you think much about what is required to grow almonds?
A surprising number of consumers do, and it’s driving a debate about almonds that has critics levying accusations and the industry — growers included — fighting back.
The backdrop of the debate is severe drought in 2014, which prompted several articles in environmentally oriented publications such as Mother Jones that criticized almonds for the amount of water they use.
Articles started popping up, for example, questioning whether it was responsible to drink almond milk. Other blogs and op-ed pieces raised questions about how much groundwater almonds use and whether that water is essentially being exported overseas to satisfy an international craving for the popular nut.
The criticism was partly timed to coincide with the passage of the state’s first-ever comprehensive groundwater sustainability law last year. The law, which will be phased in over a number of years, is an attempt to curb decades of a pump-as-you-please policy.
One of the criticisms levied against almonds is that new orchards are being planted in areas of the San Joaquin Valley that don’t have access to surface water, thereby virtually guaranteeing groundwater overdraft even if there weren’t a drought.