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Comment by AnimalMuppet | Hacker News Reader

One gallon per almond? But... one gallon of bottled water is more than a dollar. I know there's packaging and transportation, but there's packaging and transportation for the almonds, too. And almonds are not one dollar per almond.

Do the almond growers receive subsidized water? I don't know how else the economics of this works out. (Unless the water used to grow almonds isn't up to the purity standards of drinking water, and they're counting on the tree to filter it...)

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Yes, they do. Water is a lot less expensive for farmers, always has been.

This [0] is a pretty good analysis of how California spends its water. One interesting point: instead of carefully installing low-flow fixtures and rationing showers and letting your lawn die, you could pay the california alfalfa industry about $2 to grow $2 less alfalfa for a year.

0: http://slatestarcodex.com/2015/05/11/california-water-you-do...

I think people (especially urban dwellers) are disconnected from how agriculture works. It takes lots of water to support plants, and even more to support animals (including people).

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/13/food-water-footprin...

some highlights:

1 gallon of coffee - 1056 gallons of water

1 pound of chicken - 518 gallons

1 pound of beef - 1847 gallons

1 gallon of wine - 872 gallons

1 gallon of lentils - 704 gallons

The disconnect is with whoever decided that desert farms should receive water that could instead be used by cities. No one has a right to farm the desert. Quit subsidizing that, and agriculture will move back to areas that have plenty of water. Dairy, in particular, should be concentrated in the Midwest.

Agricultural land is often connected to 19th century water rights in CA, allowing nearly unlimited access to ground water and a set allocation of running streams at very low cost.

Access to ground water is so unrestricted that the entire Central Valley is sinking! https://www.revealnews.org/article/california-is-sinking-and...

> But... one gallon of bottled water is more than a dollar.

A gallon of tap water isn't, and a gallon of agricultural well water is even cheaper.

Water is typically very cheap, when it's not bottled. So I imagine they aren't using bottled water, which would be outrageously priced, but hopefully it deters some people from buying it.

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