Natural Beekeeping International Forum

[Adam Rose]

The latest from Mother Jones on the Californian almond crop and the depletion of groundwater : http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2015/01/california-drought-almonds-water-use

This is relevant to beekeeping because migratory beekeeping is used to pollinate the almond crop.

[Adam Rose]

More from Mother Jones on this subject : http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2015/04/real-problem-almonds.

[Adam Rose]

http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2015/05/almonds-now-require-85-percent-us-beehives

"The migration…continually boomerangs honeybees between times of plenty and borderline starvation. Once a particular bloom is over, the bees have nothing to eat, because there is only that one pollen-depleted crop as far as the eye can see"

[Adam Rose]

The latest in this economic and ecological tragedy :

http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2016/01/almond-boom-prices-falling-drought-exports

[catchercradle]

I hope things get tougher for almond growers. While I can sympathise with individuals who may lose their livelihoods, the monocrop desert created by the almond orchards is an ecological disaster. The earth will given time as the article suggest destroy the system that has created so much damage. If it happens more quickly all the better!

[andy pearce]

What we can do ourselves is to only buy.organic almonds or no almonds at all

http://www.bigtreeorganic.com/morethanalmonds.html

A

[Adam Rose]

Taking the last two replies together, I don't think that wishing financial disaster on farmers, however large and however industrialised they might be, is the right response. Andy's post shows that it is possible to produce food in a sustainable way. Many of these farmers will have large debts to banks or agro-chemical combines, and will be suffering the usual bullying tactics from the large buyers. If they go bust it would probably lead to a bigger ecological disaster than before, for example by being bought out by hedge funds or similar. I think a combined economic and ecological crisis means that it is easier to argue for a system with different priorities. More people, including some of the farmers themselves, will be open to the argument that we cannot carry on as we are.