Almonds for export has to go. Anyone have a list of names of almond farmers? Or if its not "families" what are the names of the big almond agribusiness operations going on? As they are responsible for the majority of water consumption and causes of drought problems.
Almonds are an efficient use of water compared to cattle, and you would save California water by switching to almond milk from cow milk. California almonds use only 10% of California's water (not "the majority of water consumption") and supply the vast majority of the world's almonds. Alfalfa for cattle uses 50% more Californian water than that and ultimately produces a relatively (to almonds) miniscule amount of calories for human consumption.
And, the real kicker to me, that Alfalfa is overwhelming exported over seas to countries that can't grow it themselves because of, drumroll please, prolonged drought conditions.
Did you know that 100% of the almonds consumed in the US are grown in California, and 70% of all almonds consumed worldwide are grown here? It's a multi-billion dollar industry in California.
Sadly, it's not so black and white to just say "cut 'em off!"
Agriculture is absolutely nothing compared to other sectors in California. They are at 2% of gross state product. So yeah. "cut 'em off". 2% of our GSP and using all the water because they have family/historical water "rights".
