Almonds are one thing... we actually need those.
The sad part is, most of the agricultural water goes to alfalfa.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/08/opinion/meat-makes-the-pla...
The sad part is, most of the agricultural water goes to alfalfa.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/08/opinion/meat-makes-the-pla...
Stop the free water subsidies to big agro businesses, and let the free market price of water affect meat prices.
Unless I'm missing something major, we "need" almonds for exactly one reason: they're tasty. That exact same "need" exists for meat. Personally, I'm quite happy eating neither, since I'm not a fan of nuts in general.
I recognize some people love almonds, and I'm not running around trying to get them banned, but I definitely think, just as with meat, we need to think of these things as choices, not just plain needs.
Ok... maybe "need" is a bit strong, we don't need any specific food item, but my point is, we do need food and that food does require water.
Check out page 8 of this pdf.... http://www.cggc.duke.edu/environment/valuechainanalysis/CGGC...
Nuts do use water in California. Slightly less than rice (at least in 2003, there may be some variations since).
The point is... by far the biggest (and most unnecessary) user of agricultural water in California is Alfalfa. (Yes, I know there was a recent Slate article on Almonds. But the amount of water they use pales in comparison to Alfalfa.)
Macarons.
On the other hand, we could always let them eat cake.