Health & Fitness

[Mr. Mickeys Mom]

'Like sending bees to war': the deadly truth behind your almond-mild obsession

By Annette McGivney
Read more at Source: The Guardian

Bees are essential to the functioning of America’s titanic almond industry – and billions are dying in the process

Dennis Arp was feeling optimistic last summer, which is unusual for a beekeeper these days.

Thanks to a record wet spring, his hundreds of hives, scattered across the central Arizona desert, produced a bounty of honey. Arp would have plenty to sell in stores, but more importantly, the bumper harvest would strengthen his bees for their biggest task of the coming year.

Like most commercial beekeepers in the US, at least half of Arp’s revenue now comes from pollinating almonds. Selling honey is far less lucrative then renting out his colonies to mega-farms in California’s fertile Central Valley, home to 80% of the world’s almond supply.

Hell, no... I'm not giving up...

[GZeusH]

Reply To: 'Like sending bees to war': the deadly truth behind your almond-mild obsession

Almond juice.  Trees are plants, not mammals, so they have no titties to give milk with.  It’s almond juice.

[Jan Boehmerman]

Reply To: 'Like sending bees to war': the deadly truth behind your almond-mild obsession

@gzeush  “It’s almond juice.”

Well maybe “juice” is the correct term.  But “almond milk” had been used as a replacement for perishable milk for centuries.

Lewis and Cark carried it with them on the Corps of Discovery Expedition,

[HassleCat]

Reply To: 'Like sending bees to war': the deadly truth behind your almond-mild obsession

Almonds require a surprising amount of water. They are irrigation pigs.

[GZeusH]

Reply To: 'Like sending bees to war': the deadly truth behind your almond-mild obsession

Not really. There was one growing in a vacant lot across the street from me in Las Vegas.  It had lots of almonds on it with the ~5″ of annual rainfall it got.  Now to make a bigger profit, maybe an orchard can use subsidized water to boost the yield per tree, but that’s another story.

[Mr. Mickeys Mom]

Reply To: 'Like sending bees to war': the deadly truth behind your almond-mild obsession

I drink soy milk, which is an easier crop to grow, if it’s non-GMO.

Hell, no... I'm not giving up...

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