Posted on 01/17/2020 2:13:54 PM PST by nickcarraway
In the past five years, almond milk consumption in the United States has exploded over 250 percent. The lower-calorie, vegan milk alternative is a staple in grocery stores and coffee shops across the country now, but its booming popularity comes at a heavy environmental cost. According to a new report from the Guardian this week, the titanic and growing demands of the California almond industry are placing a huge strain on the hives of bees used to pollinate their orchards, wiping out billions of honeybees in a matter of months.
“My yard is currently filled with stacks of empty bee boxes that used to contain healthy hives,” Dennis Arp, a commercial beekeeper, told the Guardian. Like many of his peers, nearly half of Arp’s income comes from renting out his hives to pollinate almonds. But now, he says, he loses 30 percent or more of his bees a year, a number that’s on par for many beekeepers in the U.S. One survey of commercial beekeepers found that 50 billion honeybees were wiped out in just a few months during the winter of 2018–19.
The high mortality rate among bees who pollinate almonds, beekeepers believe, is due in part to the enormous quantities of pesticides used on almonds — far more than any other crop in California, whose Central Valley region is responsible for more than 80 percent of the world’s almond supply. What’s more, almond pollination is especially demanding for bees, because they need to wake up from their annual period of winter dormancy one to two months earlier than usual to begin. Then, once they start, massive numbers of bees are concentrated in small geographic areas, making it easier for diseases to spread among them.
As Patrick Pynes, an organic beekeeper who teaches environmental studies at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, told the Guardian, “The bees in the almond groves are being exploited and disrespected. They are in severe decline because our human relationship to them has become so destructive.”
In order to improve the pollination process, groups have launched programs to help protect bees and signal to consumers which products have been made with “bee-friendly” methods. The nonprofit “Bee Better,” for instance, partners with almond growers to increase biodiversity for bees in their groves by planting wildflowers, mustard, and clover between the rows of almond trees.
Still, even the most bee-friendly almond groves have a heavy environmental footprint. Almonds are an especially thirsty crop. As Mother Jones reported back in 2014, it takes a gallon of water to produce a single almond, an astounding demand in a regularly drought-stricken state.
Maybe try out oat milk for a while instead?
So rent your bees out to other agricultural concerns. And I had no idea almonds had nipples.
How about trying cows mile. It’s sustainable, the same cow can be used over and over. They produce more cows, leather, beef, green tripe for your dogs, all kinds of stuff.
I admit it’s all I drink for “milk”. I need to search for alternatives I guess.
Milk
“The bees....are being.....disrespected.”
Maybe we could give them medals or something.
I didn’t read anything about “evil” except in the headline. I guess liberals get to define their own brand of morality.
If 100% of the people who read this would stop drinking almond milk . . . it would make no difference at all. I’m all for taking measures such as the ones described in the article to help the bees, but demonizing almond milk and those who drink it won’t effect a change, just like demonizing beef and the use of paper haven’t had an impact on those industries.
“Almond milk” just sounds so much nicer than “nut juice.”
Article sponsored by the wheat industry....have to put competion down.
Wasn't this a "B" movie? Calling Barry B. Benson...
Read the same the other day in The Guardian. No more am for me.
Almond milk is much better for diabetics. Low to zero carbs and sugar. That’s why I drink it.
Those almond growers better be careful or they’ll get a visit from the SNL Killer Bees.
Demise of The Kneeling Bees - they has been seriously disrespected.
Almonds use almost 1/4 of the entire US bee supply ... think of all the other flowering crops that need bees too
And those other crops contribute a lot more to the economy than almonds do
Unsweetened chocolate almond milk is 40 calories. Add some splenda and you have a really good chocolate milk that is very low in calories.
Saw that and immediately looked up to see if this was the Babylon Bee. Nope.
I had to check to verify this wasn’t from the Babylon Bee...
This is so stupid it hurts.
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