Friday , March 29 2024

Almond Shaming: Almond growers feel singled-out

Northern California farmers are having to defend themselves from people who don’t like the crops they’re growing.

(KCRA) Northern California farmers are defending themselves from people criticizing how much water they use to irrigate their crops in the ongoing drought.

It’s called "almond shaming" and it started when this statistic was released to the public: "It takes one gallon of water to produce one almond."

The statistic then spread like wildfire on social media sites — and last week, people became increasingly critical when Gov. Jerry Brown instituted mandatory water restrictions on all municipalities, but spared agriculture this time around.

That’s when the media discovered California’s $ 11 billion almond crop was drinking up about 10 percent of the state’s agricultural water and the finger-pointing began, sparking the Almond Board of California to release what it referred to as a "fact sheet" containing eight items about almonds, agriculture and the drought.

"People see us watering and it’s tight everywhere and they get panicked," Stanislaus County grower Biff Galbrath said.

Read more: http://bit.ly/1ycma6u

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