Paesta Podcasts

You Asked, We Answered! Transcript of the podcast Hello, on today’s episode of the PAESTA Podcast Series, we’ll be talking about whether almonds really take too much water to be worth growing, especially during a water shortage. This is a common misconception that we hopefully can clear up. The almond industry brings in an astounding 11 billion dollars annually since the popularity of almonds has gone up over the past couple years because of  almonds’  many health benefits. California supplies about 80% of the United States almonds, and dedicates 10%, or 80 million gallons, of its state’s water to grow the nut. To grow one almond  requires 1.1 gallons of water, and to grow a pound takes 1,900 gal/ lb[1]. The crazy thing about that is that walnuts, hazelnuts, pistachios, and cashews all use roughly the same amount of water to grow as well, but it is the almond which is in such high demand at this time. Currently, California is in the midst of a 5 year drought that has everyone looking at the nu