this post was submitted on 31 May 2026
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I think almonds use an inordinate amount of water.
It's actually insane how much water almonds use. But we'd rather do that and use water to maintain golf courses in Arizona than think about boring things like crops and food.
Less than meat. But don't just take my word for it: CA-Ag-Water-Use.pdf https://pacinst.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/CA-Ag-Water-Use.pdf
If I look at German sources almonds and beef/pork have the following overall water demand for 1 kg product:
Almonds: 10000-15000 L/kg, beef: 15400 L/kg, pork needs apparently half of beef
That does not necessarily sound like "less than meat". Granted almonds are among the most water consuming plants. Potatoes need only 290 L/kg.
https://berlin.nabu.de/umwelt-und-ressourcen/oekologisch-leben/essen-und-trinken/32632.html https://www.landwirtschaft.de/umwelt/natur/wasser/wasserfussabdruck-wie-viel-wasser-steckt-in-landwirtschaftlichen-produkten
Yeah, but how many people are eating that meat versus those almonds.
"American meat consumption dwarfs almond consumption by over 50-fold. The average American eats over 220 pounds of meat annually, compared to just 2 pounds of almonds. While meat is a traditional dietary staple, almond consumption has surged by over 220% due to their popularity as a health snack and dairy substitute."
A kg of almonds takes 3000 liters of water, so that's 1.9 calories per liter.
Near as I can tell water cost of meat ranges from 2000 l/kg for chicken to maybe 15,000 l/kg for beef. That's 0.09-0.6 calories/liter. So, 3-20x more people can eat almonds than meat.
They did the math
Where do you have the 3000 L of water for 1 kg almonds from? It is not in that paper. I read about 10000-15000L per kg almonds (here: https://berlin.nabu.de/umwelt-und-ressourcen/oekologisch-leben/essen-und-trinken/32632.html) but that was admittedly not a scientific publication.
You think they’re just growing and throwing away the almonds or something? Sheesh, people will use the stupidest most twisted logic to justify their own shitty actions.
Those data are thrown off by Spiders Georg
they do