I've read that it takes a gallon of water to produce ONE almond in
California but many of the sources for such statistics are dubious to
say the least. All it takes is one quackie magazine to print something
as fact and then it gets quoted so many times that it falsely becomes
"common knowledge" or a "truism".
There's something about the "gallon per nut" statistic that leaves an
uneasy feeling.
https://www.theguardian.com/food/201...probably-wrong
http://tiny.cc/9dx2xy
Is almond milk really the nuts?
Influenced by clean eating and agri-exposés such as Cowspiracy
(whichpointed to methane emissions from cattle as crucial in global
warming), many are ditching cows milk in favour of non-dairy
alternatives, which, according to Euromonitor, now make-up 12% of global
milk sales.
That sounds positive. Pre-shipping, the carbon created by a litre of
semi-skimmed (1.67kg) is far higher than that of almond milk (360g).
But what people dont know is the environmental damage almond
plantations are doing in California, and the water cost. *It takes a
bonkers 1,611 gallons (7,323 litres) to produce 1 litre of almond
milk,* says the Sustainable Restaurant Associations Pete Hemingway.
Over 80% of the worlds almonds are grown in California, which has been
in severe drought for most of this decade. Hemingway describes a
situation in which farmers are ripping up relatively biodiverse citrus
groves to feed rocketing demand for almonds, creating a monoculture fed
by increasingly deep water wells that threaten statewide subsidence
issues. That leaves rather a bad taste in the mouth.
Solution: of the dairy alternatives, oat milk is the most sustainable
option.