California Drought: Farmers Shaking Almonds off Trees to Save Orchards

[Tall Timbers]

Farmers struggling in the California drought are shaking almonds off their trees to save the trees themselves, according to Victor Davis Hanson, a farmer and conservative commentator.

Hanson, commenting on the most recent edition of his podcast, the Victor Davis Hanson Show, said that the lack of rainfall and the absence of new water infrastructure projects in the state was forcing farmers to sacrifice the crop to save the trees, which require significant investments of money and time.

“Even driving along the west side [of the Central Valley],” Hanson noted, “you’re starting to see things I never saw before. There are orchards out there where they’ve shaken the almonds off, to keep the tree alive but not to have enough water for the crop this year.”

Other farmers are scrapping almond trees altogether, the Wall Street Journal noted on Monday:

The drought, which began last year, has spread across nearly all of the western U.S. Combined with looming restrictions on groundwater usage, it is prompting a reckoning in California’s $6 billion almond industry, which grows about 80% of the world’s supply. The situation is reshaping the state’s food sector, forcing farmers to reassess which crops they will have the water to produce, and where. It is also challenging food-company executives tasked with keeping grocery store shelves filled when reservoirs or wells run dry.

With no water flowing from canals to his Huron, Calif., farm, Jim Anderson in February opted not to plant 6,000 acres he typically devotes to crops like garlic and carrots. Instead, he sent groundwater from his wells to his almonds, which represent decades of investment. Still short of water, Mr. Anderson pulled out 400 acres of almonds in April.

“We’re grinding up trees as we speak.” Mr. Anderson said. “Beautiful orchards that could’ve lasted another five or six years.”

https://www.breitbart.com/environme...s-shaking-almonds-off-trees-to-save-orchards/

There are some revealing comments after this article by readers who understand the basis for this mostly man made problem in California.

 

[Footsteps]

I wonder whether a geological association has a point on its scale called "of Biblical proportions".

 

[DWB]

Drought, wild fires, political lunacy, moral decay, seems odd one state has all these troubles when other states do not.

 

[kathymendel]

DWB, in the fashion world, it was always said that what begins in NYC moves westward to California.
In today's world of politics and/or bible prophecy, I would say what happens in California moves eastward to NYC.
Especially since so many are moving out of California and are heading east now..........all these troubles will be spreading.
When I read of the farmers' plight re water here in my state, I can definitely picture food becoming scarce.........and, also VERY expensive for everyone.
The verse, a loaf of bread will cost a day's wages, is becoming a reality here in the US.........even tho we have been spared for so long compared to other,
less developed countries around the world.
All of this is just more and more signs that we are at the end of times, and God is bringing His truth to fruition. Jesus WILL be coming for His bride soon.
Just waiting for the call of the shofar .........

 

[Hiftobaf]

For whatever reason, almond trees require massive amounts of water. In a major drought, they'd be the first crop that farmers would uproot.

 

[depserv]

I hope the industry survives and comes back as big as ever; almonds are an important part of my life.

Any natural disaster, like drought especially, is made worse by a massive population: the more people there are the more people there are using scarce resources, like water in this case. This is one of the reasons our immigration policies are absolutely insane: no good comes from growing our population so much, especially with so much of that growth in areas that grow so much of our food.

There is a drought in my state of Arizona too. The fire hazard is so high they shut down the national forest, which shut down my daily hikes on mountain trails; now I walk through town instead, which is still good exercise but the scenery is not as nice. We have been having some rain lately; not enough for the drought to be considered over but it did put out a big fire that had been burning close to town and was endangering us, and it is making things better. The recent rains began the day after I said my first prayer asking God for rain. My guess is there was a lot of prayer energy rising up from this town and He gave us what we asked for. When I mention that to people I see on my walks people always agree.

So is there much prayer for rain in California? Probably, but what god are they praying to?

 

[kathymendel]

I would imagine there is a great deal of prayer rising up from the saints who dwell in California!
Unfortunately, there are a good amount of unbelievers here, too, who not even acknowledge God as a source of help.
I guess that could be said all over our "united" states, tho, couldn't it?

 

[antitox]

I recall that early on they shut off water to areas over the Delta Smelt fish that they CLAIMED they were trying to preserve. Ridiculous as that was, farmers were suffering greatly from that.

 

[SkyRider]

No almond joy, huh? Sorry. I used to fly in and out of Dubai quite a bit; it was kind of like a mini hub for us with all of our trips into Afghanistan. A very arid area, with very little rainfall. They were very dependent on getting their water from the Persian Gulf, through the use of desalinization plants. A very expensive process but there a necessity. Agriculture is a huge industry in California and vital to the rest of the country. They may have to resort to the production and utilization of using those types of plants to convert sea water into something they can use for irrigating farmlands. It won't be cheap though.

 

[Lovin Jesus]

As posted in a different thread on the topic of California drought, it's a deliberate manufactured drought. Even with lack of rain, there shouldn't be this kind of drought.
The is a section below is of the posted thread with the link attached. It's enough to make you furious.

"The lack of water storage has resulted in nearly 70 percent of the water that enters the Delta being flushed back into the ocean. During the past three years of the man-made drought, California has flushed more than 2 million acre-feet of water (or 652 billion gallons) back into the ocean due to water policies inhibiting the irrigation infrastructure from operating at full capacity, along with a major deficiency of water storage facilities."

https://www.raptureforums.com/forum...he-seriousness-of-californias-drought.179819/

 

[GHoe]

As posted in a different thread on the topic of California drought, it's a deliberate manufactured drought.

Exactly ! when I read above "any natural disaster"... Hold up.. this is a manufactured crisis to sell global warming initiatives among other nefarious goals. If it happens to usher in some food shortage and more dependency on the government, meh... so be it.

 

[Batman]

The demand for almonds and byproducts is huge so raising almonds must be a MAJOR industry and money maker. I think many in this world have their head buried in the sand about the pressures, stress, and even thin profit margin to raising any crop or animals for our foodstuffs; let alone things that have to be done to save a crop due to too much or too lean of something (heat, rain, snow, cold, wind, bugs, disease, infestations, etc.).

 

[Joseph The Carpenter]

Control the food in order to Control the people.

 

[heisable2]

Farmers struggling in the California drought are shaking almonds off their trees to save the trees themselves, according to Victor Davis Hanson, a farmer and conservative commentator.

Hanson, commenting on the most recent edition of his podcast, the Victor Davis Hanson Show, said that the lack of rainfall and the absence of new water infrastructure projects in the state was forcing farmers to sacrifice the crop to save the trees, which require significant investments of money and time.

“Even driving along the west side [of the Central Valley],” Hanson noted, “you’re starting to see things I never saw before. There are orchards out there where they’ve shaken the almonds off, to keep the tree alive but not to have enough water for the crop this year.”

Other farmers are scrapping almond trees altogether, the Wall Street Journal noted on Monday:

The drought, which began last year, has spread across nearly all of the western U.S. Combined with looming restrictions on groundwater usage, it is prompting a reckoning in California’s $6 billion almond industry, which grows about 80% of the world’s supply. The situation is reshaping the state’s food sector, forcing farmers to reassess which crops they will have the water to produce, and where. It is also challenging food-company executives tasked with keeping grocery store shelves filled when reservoirs or wells run dry.

With no water flowing from canals to his Huron, Calif., farm, Jim Anderson in February opted not to plant 6,000 acres he typically devotes to crops like garlic and carrots. Instead, he sent groundwater from his wells to his almonds, which represent decades of investment. Still short of water, Mr. Anderson pulled out 400 acres of almonds in April.

“We’re grinding up trees as we speak.” Mr. Anderson said. “Beautiful orchards that could’ve lasted another five or six years.”

https://www.breitbart.com/environme...s-shaking-almonds-off-trees-to-save-orchards/

There are some revealing comments after this article by readers who understand the basis for this mostly man made problem in California.

I wonder if they're going to stop making almond milk because of the lack of almonds. Didn't some Farmers dig up their trees because they took up so much water?