70% of those almonds are exported. But you should take a pathetic dribble of a shower.
For those who don’t know, the flow restriction plug can be removed from most shower heads. But you didn’t hear it from me.
Almonds consume as much California water as all household use
https://www.c-win.org/cwin-water-blog/2024/9/23/california-almond-water-usage-updated
23 Comments
trevor@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 63 pts · 1y
Nobody look at how much water (and exploitation) that animal agriculture requires 🫣
antlion@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 17 pts · 1y
I agree it’s a large portion. However, the big difference is that most dairy and meat produced in state is not exported. Water is a public resource, so it should raise additional alarms when the public is not benefiting from its use.
cymbal_king@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 1y
The meat might not be exported, but the water intensive livestock feed sure is
antlion@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 4 pts · 1y
We should account for the water of all agricultural exports more carefully.
version_unsorted@lemm.ee · 4 pts · 1y
https://www.cdfa.ca.gov/statistics/
It kind of seems like a lot of dairy is exported. Dairy was valued at $10.4 billion, Cattle and Calves: $3.63 billion, Almonds: $3.52 billion. I mean, unless California is consuming over 70% of $14 billion in cattle and dairy products, but exporting all the almonds.
antlion@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 4 pts · 1y
You can click the export stats. Almonds are #1 export, followed by dairy. Dairy exports were about $2B out of $10B produced. So roughly 75% of dairy is not exported.
version_unsorted@lemm.ee · 2 pts · 1y
Well, I did a little analysis and almonds sure are a consumer of water in California, but I'd encourage you to look into the water, land use and emissions impact of cattle and dairy, I know, you are worried about exporting away all your water, but there are larger impact agricultural products and you said everything should be scrutinized more, so here is more scrutiny.
tl;dr: In 2022, California used this much water on these agricultural products: Almonds: 9 billion m³ Beef: 20 billion m³ Cheese: 4.4 billion m³ Butter: 1.3 billion m³
This doesn't factor in other dairy products because the data doesn't line up well enough to compute and I'm just some internet user, so what do I know?
Anyways land use is crazy, beef alone used 1 million acres, while all other field crops used 627 thousand acres. (Source: cdfa stat review)
commie@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 1y
blue water I could drink. cows make green water available to me.
itsgoodtobeawake@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 1y
Another big difference is the $38 billion in subsidies the meat and dairy industries get from U.S. taxpayers....That should also raise alarms.
Nfamwap@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 1y
It's pretty well known how environmentally destructive the meat industry is.
It doesn't mean that almonds, or avocados, or any other industrialised agricultural process that uses excessive resources shouldnt have the spotlight on it too.
Drunemeton@lemmy.world · 17 pts · 1y
Yes they fucking do, but were told to limit our showers to <5 minutes, and upon occasion live by the mantra, “If it’s yellow it’s mellow, if it’s brown flush it down…”
CodingCarpenter@lemm.ee · 5 pts · 1y
Problem is if you let it mellow too long it starts growing stuff in your toilet. Then you gotta bleach the damn water
antlion@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 1y
Every drop counts. On the plus side when you remove the flow restriction from your shower, you never need to shower more than 5 minutes, because you’re being pummeled with an absolutely luxurious deluge. Warm up faster, rinse off faster. It’s not even clear to me that it uses more water.
zer0squar3d@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 1y
My pressure is so high it stings without it, I mean that's one way to get clean by grinding off the top layer of flesh.
scutiger@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1y
I didn't like the trickle that I got, so I tried removing it, and it was high flow but not enough pressure, so I just used a drill to enlarge the hole a little bit and it's much better.
lurklurk@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 1y
If American showers allowed adjustment of both pressure and temperature like most modern European ones, you wouldn't have this issue
Wrench@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1y
That's because they can charge us, the peasants, extra high emergency prices to reduce usage. But do the farmers get charged the same extorted rate, or are they actually subsidized?
n3m37h@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 1y
Nope, they have water rights and if they don't use them they loose it so they grow alfalfa flood feilds then sell it to foreign countries
AdolfSchmitler@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 1y
Nobody mention the 900+ golf courses in CA either. Peasants can drink toilet water if they're thirsty.
antlion@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 1y
At least some people use that grass. What about all the water for the dead? Los Angeles has some huge cemeteries.
Infinite@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 1y
If we didn't water them after planting, where would babies come from?
TheBat@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 1y
antlion@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 3 pts · 1y
As long as there’s sufficient pressure in the pipes, removing the flow restriction increases both the velocity and volume coming from the shower head. I suppose if the pipes have low pressure to start with, the flow restriction could help. But in my experience, it has been quite luxurious and forceful without the plugs.
ieatpwns@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1y
I take less showers so I can put almond milk in my latte
/s