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?
Ugh, I tasted once, gross. There really is no replacement for cow milk.
They use pesticides that the bees ingest, which kills the bees.
Nut juice...
I wonder how much protein almond milk has compared to cow’s milk. Also how complete the protein is. I’d guess oat milk has very little protein.
Personally I like whole milk fortified with a splash of heavy cream.
goat?
I’ve heardyears ago we are not supposed to drink milk after infancy, only meant for newborn’s of the mammal it comes from, then the mammal grows into drinking water or in human’s case juice, wine etc
No replacement for milk? Try again...All I drink is almond milk now and won’t ever go back to milk. On a side note, I once had a medical examiner tell me the worst thing a adult can consume is regular cows milk. His opinion, not mine.
And shipping it for “free” via Amazon thousands of miles instead of tens/or hundreds of miles from a local farm will save on the transportation cost of “fresh” food. The dopey comments are rolling in to this thread like oranges and they seem to be “centered” in the once sane state of Virginia
I used to live in that area and called on many orchardists back when I worked for the National Federation of Independent Business. None of the orchardists I knew did not spray pesticides on the trees during the blossoming season. The sprayed pesticides after the blossoms set. They aren’t stupid.
I’m sorry, but by restating this dopey comment twice, verbatim, you’re being a pinhead. Ukrainian corn is not going to taste like a cob taken off the stalk minutes or days off the stalk. Again, you lost this game along time ago. Just quit and lick your wounds
funny comments
True.
Answering as a small time beekeeper.
My guess it would come down to couple of problems.
To many bees for the amount of pollen/Nectar available.
To much use of Insecticide in the fields.
Try COW milk, for Cripes sake
Well I cannot speak for Almond farmers.
But I have lost many hives of bees here in Georgia on Blue berry farms, Watermelon fields. I asked for 3 days advanced notice before pesticides are used. Trust me you don’t always get also the farms two miles away where you have no bees decide to spray pesticide. You want even know till you find your hives dead or dying.
No argument from me about not knowing what the neighbors are doing, but the premise of the article was the evil almond farmers spraying during bloom.
Soy milk is the best
I use coconut milk....allergic to all dairy products, and nut allergy with almonds as well. But I like coconut milk. So Delicious brand and Silk brand in the unsweetened varieties.
Lol — the killer bees from Mexico. A classic sketch.
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