Blog: Major myths regarding water use in almonds
There are significant myths regarding almonds. Most of it is about how they use too much water, but they get four crops from every drop of water. They’re very efficient. Clarice Turner is president and CEO of the Almond Board of California. “Part of what we’re doing is just making sure that the public is aware of the facts, Turner said. “And by the way, it’s not marketing hype because we are a quasi-government overseen by the USDA. Everything we publish has to be fact-based. That’s coming from at least three peer-reviewed academic studies in the traditional process. That’s how we get our information,” she said. “It’s unfortunate that people think almonds use too much water. A statement like this grows arms and legs. When you irrigate almonds, you get four crops per drop— There’s the kernel we eat, which grows inside a woody shell, fuzzy outer hull, and the tree. The trees store tons of carbon each year, the shells become livestock bedding, and the hulls are nutritious dairy feed, reducing the water needed to grow other feed crops,” explained Turner.
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