this post was submitted on 13 Jun 2026
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me_irl
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I love almonds but we should not be unsustainably subsidizing their production by allowing farmers to massively deplete aquifers with little costs borne on their part because their great great great grandpappy happened to settle early enough to get a disproportionate share of the water rights. If they have to shoulder that cost then they have a reason to grow more water efficient crops rather than spamming almonds.
Farmers effectively mining out the groundwater below them can be really bad in areas that recharge those aquifers very slowly, particularly since that changes the soil to be more compacted such that instead of filtering down and recharging the groundwater the water instead piles up on the surface and runs off as floodwaters to areas unfortunate enough to be downstream.
Absolutely true for all of that (and I talked about some of these issues in my earlier comment), but anyone listening to data center bros telling them x crop is SO bad because it consumes SO much water is listening to a wolf talk about how the sheep don’t eat enough. They aren’t interested in restoring the ecosystem, they want that water for themselves.