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Comment by CameronNemo | Hacker News Reader

Seems the problem is pesticide use, not necessarily almond cultivation. Perhaps I am splitting hairs, but there are few good protein sources available today and tree nuts are plentiful in my region. It is hard to imagine that those cow farms in the central valley and elsewhere are any more moral or sustainable.

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I think the issue with almonds is that by growing them in massive monoculture you create bee deserts for the majority of the year when the almonds aren't flowering. Once the flowers disappear, any remaining bees will starve until the next year. So this criticism could be leveled essentially against almost any large scale monoculture crop.

I'd be interested to know why almonds (and avocados) are usually highlighted here. Are other flowering crops typically grown in more diverse environments?

Which other crops rely on bee pollination? Soy? Corn? Fruits?

A lot: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_crop_plants_pollinat...

Soy is self-fertile, while corn is wind pollinated.

I'm not sure that is the issue, because beekeepers would move elsewhere after the almond season, right?

There just aren’t enough bees locally to pollinate the hundreds of thousands of acres of almonds that all flower at the same time. And you have to pollinate every flower to get a nut.

It’s remarkable what California almond industry has achieved. It’s also unsustainable and harmful to bees.

One of these documentaries was claiming that bees aren’t that excited about almond flowers and they will choose anything else to pollinate over them.

This to explain why you see almonds growing essentially in dirt. Other flowers would outcompete.

Personally I suspect there are plenty of plants that don’t overlap much with almond flowering that you could use.

Almonds as a crop aren't going to provide enough nutrients for bees, but yeah, it's an issue anywhere large monocultures exits.

Pulses are a great source of protein.

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