Food Systems and Almond farming
A review of our food systems and their ecological impact with focus on almond farming and its resilience to drought.
Global emphasis on sustainability means every aspect of the way we engage with the world is now under review. Of utmost importance is assessing how our food is produced. It is no longer acceptable to blindly consume food without questioning its origin, production methods and waste management after consumption. Food systems account for 70% of our fresh water use and one quarter of our greenhouse emissions (Lindgren et al. 2018). Biodiversity loss is another casualty of our global food production (Polleu 2021). Agroecology is defined as the integrative study of the ecology of the entire food system, encompassing ecological, economic and social dimensions (Francis et al. 2003). Whilst this concept is relatively old now there seems to be a real lack of research in this arena. The UN Sustainable Development Goals mention food systems in at least 3 of the goals and they will hold a Food Systems Summit in the coming. The hope is they will mobilise the world to find the impetus, the methodology and technology to change the way we relate to food.
A review of the literature on our food systems and their ecological impact drives home two important points. We need major change to reach a greater level of equity and sustainability in our food path. We need data and analysis to do so. There are limitations in the current methods we use to assess how sustainable our food systems are. Combining global data – from life cycle assessment to evidence of resource depletion and environmental impact studies – from the farm to the consumer is essential to design sustainable food systems (Holden 2018)
A closer look at almond farming will highlight the importance of analysis, utilising new technology and government intervention to ensure ecological preservation and resilience to global shocks.
Background
Many in the western world are attempting to combat the obesity epidemic by following a plant-based diet (Turner-McGrievy et al 2017). Currently in Australia there is a steady upward trend towards plant-based beverages (IBISworld 2020). In 2021 the soy and almond milk market in Australia is worth $316.3m (IBISworld 2021). Poor and Nemeck comment that “most strikingly, impacts of the lowest-impact animal products typically exceed those of vegetable substitutes, providing new evidence for the importance of dietary change”. (Poor et al 2018). The global warming potential, which is assessed by how much carbon dioxide is released per litre of diary milk, is around 1.14 in Australia and 2.5 in Africa. The global warming potential of almond and coconut milk is on average 0.42 for almond and coconut and 0.75 for soy milk (Marinova et al 2020).
Ecological Impact of Almond Growing
Almonds are tree nuts and are packed full of nutrients, minerals, antioxidants and protein. However, it is highly water inefficient to produce almonds. Producing one almond results in a water footprint of 12L (Fulton et al. 2019). A recent review by Davy Vanham et al. (2020) looks at the EAT-Lancet Commission's suggestion to increase our nut consumption and what impact this might have on the environment (Vanham etc al 2020). They found the suggested 25grams of tree nuts and 25grams of ground nuts a day would require an increase in global nut production of more than 11 times current tree nut production and 7 times current groundnut production (Vanham et al. 2020). This would require an immense increase in blue water and green water use. Blue water is water in rivers, lakes and aquifers and green water is water in the soil from precipitation. With production already increasing at huge rates there would need to be a shift in other food systems that use water to enable this kind of increase without causing catastrophic implications on water security. It is these kind of changes in global diet that suggest a review of our food production is urgently needed.
California’s Almond Production
California produces 80% of the world’s almonds so it is important to assess their methods and water usage when reviewing global almond production. The pressing question is - Do the dietary benefits of almonds balance out the ecological impacts? There is no clear answer.
A life cycle assessment (LCA) may show where the production of a certain food is lacking in its sustainability. Winans et al. 2019 undertook a LCA on Californian unsweetened almond milk. Using global warming potential (GWP) and freshwater consumption (FWC) as indictors they found that from kernel to supermarket almond milk was 4.5 times more sustainable than dairy milk. 95% of the FWC was due to irrigation. Whilst changing from virgin PET material for bottles to recycled material would reduce the GWP they did not offer solutions in how to reduce the water use. Almonds are currently Americas most irrigated crop so there is an urgent need to rethink water use here especially noting the drought in recent years in this area. Historically, California’s farms are watered by the winter snow and rain and without this option there is substantial lack of water for farming. Farms have cut their acreage by 25% and many are destroying older almond trees to planet new ones, despite the trees having a least 3 or 4 more seasons in them (Elkin 2021). Younger trees need less water and there just isn’t enough to go around if measures are not taken. Despite a law regarding ground water use, wells are drying up and residents and farmers in the California basin are in dire straits. Due to flows from the surface waterways dropping, pumping water is now being relied upon by growers, who account for 80% of ground water use in the state. This is resulting in the aquifer in the area depleting and irreversible damage done.
Australian Almonds
The Australian almond is our most valuable crop with exports over $772 million in 2019-2020 (ABA 2021). We are the second biggest producer of almonds in the world after the USA. This crop is increasing in exports, consumption and plantings.
There is little research specifically on Australian almonds and water footprint. We can assume the water usage to farm one almond is similar to California though there are differing factors such as soil type, farming laws and climate at play. South Australian thesis student Vahid Eichi discusses two solutions in this war on water security and resilience to climate change. One solution is to improve water management by installing better irrigation methods (Eichi 2013). Another is breeding new varieties that utilise water more efficiently. The use of self-fertilising trees is currently being trialled in South Australia. This eliminates the need for bees to cross pollinate and the trees are less susceptible to disease (Goonetilleke et al. 2020). Results so far are promising but marketing and education are necessary to see this become the norm for almond farming.
The Almond Board of Australia (2021) professes the industry is “world leading in the efficient use of water, with a strong focus on investing in irrigation management technology and continuous improvement to maximise production and minimise environmental impacts.” Australia does seem to be at the forefront when it comes to high tech irrigation systems. 99% of orchards use drip irrigation and the majority use techniques that can sense water stress in the tree to match the level of water released. Fundamental though are the local rivers that support the irrigation. The towns that surround Murray Darling Basin rely heavily on the almond production economy and are integral to almond farming. The rivers health is intricately important for this food to continue to be produced and exported.
Bees
Almond trees are cross-pollinated by bees. At this stage almond farming still relies heavily on bees. Surprisingly the single biggest movement of livestock in Australia is the bee muster which sees billions of bees moved from the Eastern states to SA almond plantations. Bee health and sustainability is integral to almond production. In the USA an obstacle in almond production is bee mortality due to pesticides and the large industrial agriculture that drastically transforms the fragile ecosystems (Bogueva &Marina 2020). This is less of a problem in Australia as the farms are much smaller however there has been notable weakness in bees due to drought and destruction of hives due to bushfires. Hand feeding bees is the norm when drought is severe. After 6 weeks on quality nectar and pollen, the bees retain full strength (Horchner 2018). This is one aspect of the almond production life cycle that can resist global shock like drought providing their keepers are well stocked with supplement feed.
Drought and Water Politics
The recent drought in California and Australia has increased the need for water. This has put a large stress on crops. There is much debate in Australia over almonds being unfairly favoured in the irrigation war. Dairy farmers say they are being decimated by the unfair irrigation system where farmers can pay for spot water and as almond growers can afford higher prices they are winning the battle. Fights between states and water allocation are rife and while the Murray-Darling Basin Plan is one that attempts to manage the issues with who gets what and how there remain complications with water trading. With climate change upon us it seems the diversion of water from less sustainable farming should be considered but managed equitably. Again, this requires comprehensive studies on which crop is going to be least taxing on our environment and yet economically and nutritionally worthy too. A comprehensive review by government is suggested into how the water is divided up and some element of compensation for those famers that might come out less than best.
The Future
The almond production system is relatively sustainable when compared to others in the food ecosystem. The future in almond farming is in irrigation technology and well managed water prioritisation. It is not possible to give guidelines on our diet without also considering the repercussions on the planet. "Eat more almonds” means produce more almonds, use more water, use more bees and farm more land. With the demand for almonds rising exponentially it is now time to review our farming practice to instal global systems and ensure the sustainability of our food.
Suggestions to prioritise crops over others may aid in climate change repercussions. Davis et al noted in their recent study on optimised crop distribution;
“We identify possible alternative configurations of the agricultural landscape that, by reshaping the global distribution of crops within current rainfed and irrigated croplands based on total water consumption, would feed an additional 825 million people while reducing the consumptive use of rainwater and irrigation water by 14% and 12%, respectively “(Davis et al. 2017).
Our food ecology is intricately connected and any changes on one level will influence not only the sustainability of the one crop but also many other food systems in this precious planet. The future lies in the willingness for the world to utilise this brief opportunity for change on every level of our food system.
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