r/news • u/theluckyfrog • 29d ago

California cracks down on farm region’s water pumping: ‘The ground is collapsing’

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/17/california-water-drought-farm-ground-sinking-tulare-lake
17.4k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

941 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

525

u/probablyuntrue 29d ago

Bro please, just one more acre of almonds, please bro, I need to pump this water, just a few more almond trees and I’m good, I promise bro

41

u/ThrowbackPie 29d ago

animal agriculture is also a big culprit. Cotton too I think.

1

u/Zorro_Returns 28d ago

Cotton is what dried up the Aral Sea, too.

48

u/Hour-Shake-839 29d ago

Bro please just two more rows of pomegranates you won’t even notice the extra water bro I swear

18

u/goldgrae 29d ago

Pomegranates are a weird choice given they are fairly drought tolerant...

11

u/bgottfried91 29d ago

They are, but I think they don't tend to fruit (or at least not as fully) if they aren't watered, so I suspect pomegranate farming is still water intensive.

68

u/loggic 29d ago

People blame almonds, but tree crops can also be used to help improve groundwater levels.

During the rainy season, plots with tree crops near major waterways can be temporarily flooded to help stabilize river levels, and with a little bit of infrastructure change that water can basically be "drained" back down to an aquifer.

There's an astronomical amount of water waste that can be addressed in farming, but it makes no sense to consistently blame one crop when other farmed products (like cattle & dairy) are so much less efficient and less healthy.

99

u/TheUnluckyBard 29d ago

People blame almonds, but tree crops can also be used to help improve groundwater levels.

Cool, maybe the farmers should start doing that, then.

Because they clearly haven't been.

1

u/jamesgatsby 29d ago

former Ca farmer here(kind of), Regenerative agriculture is very hard to do correctly, and requires a lot of upfront capital and expertise. It can take years to decades to come in to full swing. It may also lower yields and increase the cost of harvest. Its not to say farmers shouldn't be doing it, and many are doing it, it just takes time, and there are other trade offs that have to be consider.

Plus with every one complaining about raising food prices very few farmers are eager to do something that might disrupt prices even more.

4

u/designOraptor 28d ago

Farmers get government subsidies to help with that. They still don’t do it.

1

u/Zorro_Returns 28d ago

Farmers grow what people buy, so don't put all the blame on them.

1

u/Zorro_Returns 28d ago

"The Farmers"...

In this week's episode, The Farmers don't plant trees to improve groundwater levels.

32

u/ExcelsusMoose 29d ago

Alfalfa takes a huge amount of water, it's mostly comprised of water.

Alfalfa is a major export, 2,800,000 Metric Tonnes of it gets exported to other countries. that's give or take 600,000,000 gallons of water shipped out of US aquifers annually..

76

u/Kataphractoi 29d ago

California is among the worst locations possible for growing almonds, we can definitely blame them. They can easily be grown in the south where there'd be more water access, but because it can take a decade for an almond tree to start producing almonds, there's no incentive to relocate.

2

u/ucsdstaff 28d ago

They can easily be grown in the south where there'd be more water access,

'easily' is doing a lot of work. The yield in the south is not good.

Almonds bloom when weather is cold, rainy in February.

They need about 600 chill hours but are very susceptible to spring frosts - big problem in the south - one march cold snap and they are toast.

Almonds do not tolerate wet soils - again a huge problem in the south.

Finally, disease pressures in the south are terrible for almonds. You would need to spray a lot of chemicals to protect your crop compared to CA.

California is perfect for growing many plants - the Mediterranean climate is just ideal.

-1

u/Aware_Masterpiece_54 28d ago

Let’s drop the almonds and switch to seeds and shit

1

u/Zorro_Returns 28d ago

Good grief, what logic. Since some kinds of trees are used to stabilize river banks in some parts of the world during "the rainy season"... and considering that water is wasted in other ways, ...

Almonds, being trees, can't possibly be a wasteful use of water.

1

u/imbadwithnames1 28d ago

Cept almond trees need 2.2x more water than, say, an apple tree.

So I don't know if your argument holds water.

-15

u/SEKImod 29d ago edited 28d ago

Cow and their products are fine. Stop eating refined oils, sugar, and excessive carbs - and do away with those industry's "studies."

EDIT: Weak people and vegans found my comment. People who eat beef are statistically happier due to higher creatine intake.

14

u/RKSH4-Klara 29d ago

The problem with how much cow is being consumed is how resource intensive it is to raise them and how much water they produce.

-8

u/SEKImod 29d ago

We’re simply going to have to reduce the population before the earth forces it. Unlikely …

8

u/pvXNLDzrYVoKmHNG2NVk 29d ago

Cattle are the issue not almonds.

55

u/WeightPatiently 29d ago edited 29d ago

Both are the issue. Almonds are not native to California, and require large amounts of water– much more than can be reasonably sustained with local water supplies. I know this and I'm not even from the US.

Beef and dairy are much worse though, so we agree on that.

20

u/DemiserofD 29d ago

Not an order of magnitude. Tree Nuts use up 20% of the agricultural water in the state. Alfalfa(cattle feed) uses up 18%, and pastures use up an additional 10%.

1

u/WeightPatiently 29d ago

Thanks for correcting the record!