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Almond Milk Is Even More Evil Than You Thought
New York Magazine ^ | JAN. 8, 2020 | Madeleine Aggeler

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?


TOPICS: Food; Health/Medicine
KEYWORDS: almondmilk; almonds; bees
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To: Swordmaker
"The bees use it to feed themselves and their fellow hive mates. So, exactly how is doing this KILLING THEM? "

I've been wondering the same. The only answer I can come up with is that bees have a nut allergy or insecticide allergy.

Almond milk must be ruining someone's business.

Oh, and about the water issue... Which needs more water? almonds or pot plants?

41 posted on 01/17/2020 2:50:53 PM PST by 1_Rain_Drop
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To: nickcarraway

NOT the Babylon Bee?


42 posted on 01/17/2020 2:51:41 PM PST by smalltownslick
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To: Engraved-on-His-hands
You are so ignorant I can't resist rubbing your nose in it. Here it is for your EDUCATION:

AGRICULTURE IS JUST NOT THAT IMPORTANT TO THE US ECONOMY. THIS IS FACT.

43 posted on 01/17/2020 2:52:16 PM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: nickcarraway
Five or so years ago I discovered Almond milk, liked it, and have drunk it ever since. Husband was reluctant to try it as he really, really, likes whole milk. Recently, he gave in and tried the 80 calorie carton and surprised himself as liking the taste and has substituted that for the whole milk. Cost is much more but he has lost belly fat which has annoyed him forever. Slim until middle age and the whole milk was keeping him from staying close to that. I drink 30 cal and quite happy that it helps keeps calories in check. The environmentalists complain and campaign against cow flatulence and now go after replacement of cow milk with a non gaseous substitute. Proves they cannot be appeased or become content with anything on God's green earth.
44 posted on 01/17/2020 2:52:33 PM PST by mountainfolk
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To: Swordmaker

I am a hobbyist beekeeper. I run 10-20 hives at a time. It is true that varroa mites are responsible for much of the colony loss we have experienced in the U.S. Beekeepers are pursuing various means of addressing this problem, from monthly fogging of hives with oxalic acid vapor to breeding queens who pass on traits of attacking the mites and biting off their legs. (ankle biters, they are called :-)

I don’t move my bees more than 3 miles between a relative’s and my property so I have no experience in monoculture use of hives.

That being said, if growers are using pesticides then it can’t help but affect the honeybees. I’ve had die off from mosquito spraying 1/2 mile from my bee yard, even thought the county is supposed to notify me before spraying so I can close up my hives for a day or so.

I know another lady beekeeper (big operation unlike me) who was almost wiped out because she agreed to place her hives on a farm where the farmer promised no pesticides and used them anyway.


45 posted on 01/17/2020 2:54:23 PM PST by Tuscaloosa Goldfinch (Abortion is just a new spin on human sacrifice by worshipers of self and selfishness.)
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To: null and void

We could import ALL of our raw food products a MAKE everything here and we’d be MUCH better off economy. Agriculture is the ghetto economy.


46 posted on 01/17/2020 2:54:49 PM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: central_va

Oxygen makes up less than 1% of our body weight. Therefore, it’s not that important.


47 posted on 01/17/2020 2:56:23 PM PST by Engraved-on-His-hands
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To: beaversmom

Chocolate dairy milk is 200 calories!!! Almond chocolate mild taste BETTER and sweetened with splenda is only 1/5 the calories.


48 posted on 01/17/2020 2:57:44 PM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: nickcarraway

How the hell can you put a strain on bees because there are too many almond trees (huh, rhymes). Are there overseers bees that whip their slaves bees into pollinating more and more, working longer hours without breaks.

This is the most idiotic statement so I must conclude the author is a Democrat. Therefore he is a liar and has another hidden agenda.

I can just hear the bees after the sun goes down complaining and fretting over the number of blooms that they have to extract nectar from.


49 posted on 01/17/2020 2:59:56 PM PST by dirtymac (Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country.(DT4POTUS))
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To: rx

It’s “trans” milk — fake milk.


50 posted on 01/17/2020 3:00:11 PM PST by 4Liberty (Impeached, for a retort about Rosie's unhealthy weight. Why not for Obama's "Special Olympics" slur?)
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To: Engraved-on-His-hands

Face it, the GOP is kowtowing to an industry that is insignificant. Farmers are spoiled babies but have disproportionate political power. Labor and workers in general are political orphans. At some point one of the two political parties are going to figure that out.


51 posted on 01/17/2020 3:01:52 PM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: beaversmom

Sorry, let me fix that, “Almond chocolate milk tastes BETTER”


52 posted on 01/17/2020 3:03:26 PM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: nickcarraway

I like almond milk even better now, though I just had it for the first time today.


53 posted on 01/17/2020 3:04:03 PM PST by SaxxonWoods (Epstein pulled a Carradine, the bozo.)
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To: McGavin999

Cows produce a lot of good stuff. But they can’t spell worth a darn.


54 posted on 01/17/2020 3:05:27 PM PST by Verginius Rufus
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To: nickcarraway

honey bees are not native to north america.... I myself have bees. One can’t speak of hive collapse and the effects of almost anything on the bee colonies without also talking about the desire by bee keepers for more docile insects. More aggressive and resilient bees have been bred out everywhere just to make the bee keepers job simpler.


55 posted on 01/17/2020 3:05:59 PM PST by Katya (lacking in the feelings department)
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To: rx

Lol! Good point!

I will admit, almond milk makes good smoothies.


56 posted on 01/17/2020 3:06:03 PM PST by AmericanMermaid
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To: null and void; central_va

Who cares if the farmers all go broke? I get my food at the grocery store!


57 posted on 01/17/2020 3:06:10 PM PST by Don W (When blacks riot, neighbourhoods and cities burn. When whites riot, nations and continents burn.)
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To: SaxxonWoods

Blended with chocolate soy powder....stevia and canned pumpkin it’s so delish.....


58 posted on 01/17/2020 3:07:13 PM PST by 1217Chic
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To: BipolarBob

A2 Milk


59 posted on 01/17/2020 3:07:43 PM PST by Java4Jay (The evils of government are directly proportional to the tolerance of the people.)
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To: Don W
Who cares if the farmers all go broke? I get my food at the grocery store! We can import all of our raw agriculture products cheaply and not have to pay for domestic agriculture subsidies.

Fixed it.

60 posted on 01/17/2020 3:09:27 PM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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