Almonds Are Bad. For Everything

9/1/20 bellaluna 13

The Central California Valley grows 80% of the world’s almond supply, much to the detriment of the water tableau and its rural residents. (I encourage you to check out Water & Power: A California Heist. It’s illuminating, and a real-life Chinatown.) The major almond grower in the area is none other than Paramount Studios owner Stuart Resnick [personal opinion silently removed], and he uses lots and and lots of water, while the residents of unincorporated areas have been water-starved by design for decades (sections 2 and 4, primarily), or don’t have access to safe drinking water. (previously covered here)

In addition to the water, almonds are destroying other aspects of the environment, due to abundant use of glyphosate, the same pesticide in Roundup. This stuff is contaminating soil and water in the US in a big way due to its popularity, but Mother Nature’s friends (and ours) – bees! – are dying off to pollinate almond trees:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jan/07/honeybees-deaths-almonds-hives-aoe

I don’t care for almond milk (too much like non-fat), and I quit buying all things owned buy him way back when I found out he owned them (same with Blue Diamond/LA County), so I won’t need to curb a painful almond addiction.

Anyone else?

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13 Comments

  1. I don’t mind almond milk but the environmental cost is too high to justify using it. I’m not a big fan of almonds as a snacking nut so I don’t often buy them either. Unless they’re called for in a recipe. But from now on I’ll look for a substitute or leave them out altogether.

    • I have found So Organic coconut milk creamer (unsweetened; unflavoured) to be most like half-n-half in coffee, but for cooking I still use non-rBST-containing milk.

      The coconut milk is the only thing I have tried that meets the consistency test, for me. *Disclaimer: I have not researched their environmental impact, but I will look into it.

    • Really we need to move to a place where we let the land tell us what we can eat. I’m as bad as anyone (well not ANYONE) but it’s not sustainable to produce foods on a national scale when they only grow in a few certain places and take such resources.

      • The fact that they just looked at the Central Valley and then just *decided* it was going to be this be fertile farmland (realities aside) and then merrily manipulated entire water systems for two countries and whole states and ohmygods…

  4. I used to treat a shit load of almonds when I was…well I guess borderline vegan? My body solved that problem itself by giving me mysterious GI problems for two years (thankfully more manageable now). There has been no real diagnosis of wtf my problem is, but almonds are top of the list bad, with hazelnuts and quinoa.

    But that’s beside the point. The point is I don’t have an almond addiction either, but I learned about the water usage years ago and would’ve quit them then if I was still using them.

  6. Soy is terrible for the soil, almonds and cashews use way too much water, and almonds in particular are killing the bees. What about oat milk? Do we have any info on whether that’s more sustainable? It really seems like the common factor in all these practices is industrial farming techniques, and given the root of the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, it’s not surprising that these heavy single-crop investments are fucking things up. It looks like cereal is a fairly modern invention, anyway–western New York, 1860s.

    ETA: Did a quick hunt, and yeah, it looks like oat milk is the way to go–apparently almonds use SIX TIMES the amount of water that oats require! https://inhabitat.com/how-to-choose-the-healthiest-most-sustainable-milk-alternative/

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