By Erik Wilson

I have heard this accusation a thousand times in the last,” You greedy farmer. You know you need to stop exporting Almonds. You use all of the water in California.”

I look at those statements and I wonder where did that get started? How did so many people end up saying the same thing? Why would Almonds and only Almonds be a crop that gets so vilified? Why the hate? I’ve even heard people say that Almonds use 3 to 4 times more water than any other crop. How did so many people repeat the same thing over and over and who did they learn it from?

You know the saying before you talk about the speck in a man’s eye you should first worry about the log in your own first? Sometimes it might be wise to act upon this wisdom.

I find it fascinating in many respects how people choose to form an opinion on something. To be honest I’m totally baffled at how people who make these statements have not noticed that big log in their own eye.

For those outside of California, you may not understand how we all get water. The overwhelming majority of people in California get their water from the same reservoirs, rivers, and streams as their farmers. The overwhelming majority of California residents have some sort of irrigation for their yards. Businesses, shopping malls, strip malls, street medians, schools, colleges, parks, and on and on, all have irrigation systems. All of them use the same water from the same places as Ag.

Almost all residential acres use the same or more water on that acre as do farmers that feed them. They both use anywhere from 24 to 60 inches of rainfall equivalent on a per acre basis. Keeping a lawn green can use 40 to 70 inches of water per year in California. For comparison, I grew a honeydew crop last year with 26 inches per acre.

Do the people who complain about Almonds, do they understand that their own neighborhoods are likely using the same amount per acre as Almonds. How can someone come out and hate on an Almond farmer when their water use is the same?

You know a lot of those folks get on social media to voice their disgust with the exports of Almonds and many other Ag products. Many of them use Apple iPhones. I bring up Apple, because Almonds may be exported, but all of the money generated from them stays in California…..unlike Apple which parks billions of its profits offshore.

So when I see someone ripping an Almond farmer about water and exports, I see someone who wasn’t thought out their position very well. No matter the crop, if people like to eat, it will take water. California farmers can grow nearly all their crops with the same water use that its own citizens use in their neighborhoods.

I don’t have a problem with my city friends’ water use. But I do have a problem that my Almonds friends have been continually beaten down by the media. So it begs the question, why do the media pick on Almonds so much and not the many other crops that use the same amount of water?

Nearly every citizen in California is 100% dependent on dams, hydroelectric energy, canals, pumps, diversions, all of which makes living here possible. Some of these folks believe it is unnatural for us to farm here, but it is ironic that they say that while eating the very food grown in this unnatural place all the while living here themselves in a place that would be inhospitable if not for the same structures that are used to grow their food. This seems kind of ironic does it not? San Francisco and LA import their food, imports their fuel, imports their electricity, and they even have to import their water because they don’t have enough themselves to survive. I don’t have a problem with all that either, but they are the ones that helped coin the phrase “sustainability.” So before you bash those that feed, clothe, and shelter you and your family, you better check that eye of yours.

By Erik Wilson

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