article_snippet.sent: Attracted by the huge profits being made from a crop that is hardly cheap, California farmers now satisfy 84 per cent of the world’s almond demand.
article_snippet.sent: Worth £3.8 billion in 2013, almonds have become California’s second biggest agricultural commodity after milk, as demand has exploded by 1,000 per cent in a decade.
article_snippet.sent: Since almond trees cover almost a million acres of California (about the size of Cornwall)
article_snippet.sent: In total, almonds are annually consuming 1.07 trillion gallons of water in California
article_snippet.sent: So is the state of California, birthplace of Sixties’ hippy values, rushing to root up almond groves and rescue its corner of the planet?
article_snippet.sent: A recent government survey found that 77 per cent of California almond farmers plan to plant more trees.
article_snippet.sent: 77 per cent of California almond farmers have the support of
article_snippet.sent: Paul Wenger, head of the California Farm Bureau, says any talk of curbing almond growing
article_snippet.sent: America has vast amounts of rich agricultural land in god-forsaken states like Iowa, but California has a Mediterranean climate that’s ideal for high-profit crops like almonds.
article_snippet.sent: If Californians won’t save Californians, an obvious solution is for everyone else to stop buying Californians almonds.
highlights_snippet.sent: The nuts have become California’s second biggest agricultural commodity .
  