Almonds cast as water war villain
Every political cause needs a villain, and for many environmental activists who have weighed in on the state’s current water woes, that bad guy is the almond.
It could just as easily have been eggs. Or oranges. Or beef.
In the future, it just might be.
Almonds, it seems, are a victim of circumstance.
They’re popular. They’re profitable. They come from trees that need water year round to stay alive. There is a drought of epic proportions.
All in all, it’s proven a tough nut for the popular food, which has been singled out in these dry times as a major water guzzler.
“They have become the poster child for agricultural water use,” says Barry Bedwell, president of the California Fresh Fruit Association.
The facts, however, show there are far bigger water scofflaws than almond trees.
It takes 3.5 gallons of water to produce a head of lettuce, 50 gallons to produce a single egg, 500 gallons for a pound of chicken and 675 gallons for a six-ounce filet steak.
Outside of agriculture, it takes 10 gallons of water to manufacture a single computer chip, a product that more than any other is identified with the economy of the Bay Area, home to many of the people who are disparaging the almond. Another water hog, it appears, will be Tesla’s battery plant now under construction near Reno. Tesla builds its cars in Fremont, a Bay Area city.
Still, as the drought rages and residents are facing unprecedented water restrictions, there is no talk of eggs or lettuce or chicken or computer chips being the bad guy. Instead, it is the almond. Its water usage? 1.1 gallons per almond.
The whole debate is ridiculous, says Madera County farmer Denis Prosperi, who has 380 acres of almond orchards in the central San Joaquin Valley.
He cites the state Water Resources Control Board’s recent regulation, which included a requirement that restaurants not serve water unless patrons request it. But beer and soda, two popular restaurant drinks, take more water to produce than simply serving water, he says.
Zeke Grader, executive director of the San Francisco-based Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, says he is wary of all the water analogies.
If a rancher is raising cattle and cattle feed in a dry area that requires irrigation, the water usage would be greater than in a place like Montana that has more rainfall all the time and would not be such an egregious water user. The semiarid San Joaquin Valley, he says, is the heart of worldwide almond production.
And C. Robert Helms, an electrical engineering professor at the University of Texas at Dallas who has worked in and written about semiconductors, says the industry has become more efficient the past few decades in its water usage. He cited Intel’s facility in Chandler, Arizona. It treats the water it uses and in turn supplies it to Chandler. He also says water is reused in chip manufacturing.
“People have to be careful about this,” Grader says of making comparisons such as almonds to chicken breasts. It’s not always apples to apples, he says.
That’s fine, Bedwell says. He says it’s hard for the agriculture industry to win a numbers game. And, he adds: “We do have a responsibility to show we are efficient.”
Almonds will be water efficient, Bedwell says. The market will see to that. Farmers plant something that brings a reasonable expectation of a profit, but with water becoming more expensive, some of those profits will have to go toward more water-efficient technologies.
Rise of the almond
When Bedwell was fresh out of college four decades ago, west-side farmers were only planting row crops because of uncertain water supplies. Then water became so expensive it necessitated the change to higher-value permanent crops, he says.
A few decades ago, farmers hit on almonds, which have exploded in popularity worldwide. They happen to grow better on the Valley’s west side than anywhere else in the world. Bedwell asks: Why are almond growers the bad guys for trying to make a profit?
It’s an $11 billion annual industry that brings good profits to growers.
Much of the explosion in planted almond acreage has sprung up on the San Joaquin Valley’s west side, sometimes replacing row crops. Almonds are trees that must be watered year round, while row crops could be fallowed if needed.
Environmental activists notice this, especially if they are on Interstate 5.
California also produces 83 percent of the world’s almond supply, which means a lot of the crop is exported. As the state struggles through a drought of epic proportions, it’s an easy potshot to say exporting almonds is like exporting the state’s water.
Seeking a bad guy
If it wasn’t almonds, though, it would be another crop, says Joel Nelsen, president of California Citrus Mutual, an Exeter-based citrus growers lobby. It’s just part of the long-term goal to return the Valley’s west side to its pre-farming state, Nelsen says.
“The environmental community has always challenged farming on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley,” he says. “The almonds are a symbol.”
Then again, so is a guy like Stewart Resnick.
He lives in Beverly Hills. He’s a billionaire. He makes lots of money in agribusiness. His Paramount Farms grows almonds.
In terms of PR value, Resnick is as easy a target as almonds.
“Frankly, some of the growers have not been the most sympathetic people,” says Grader, singling out Resnick.
Eventually, almonds will run their course, Bedwell says. He recalls the white wine boom, and the feeling that farmers would never be able to plant enough wine grapes. In less than five years, wine grapes were no longer a hot commodity.
“Markets will adjust, believe me,” Bedwell says. “Eventually, we will overplant these nut crops, prices will fall and people will not be making money. Give it enough time, it will change.”
When – and if – that day comes, the almond as bad guy may be forgotten. Already, a new villain is starting to make its presence known.
Meet bottled water, the next bad guy in the state’s water wars.
This story was originally published May 26, 2015 at 10:48 PM with the headline "Almonds cast as water war villain."