Drought and Nuts
The current situation is a flip from the middle of the 2010s, when California was in the middle of its last years-long drought. Then, almonds’ water usage actually made them a highly-valued, scarce crop—and incentivized farmers to plant a bunch more almond trees in hopes of cashing in on nut gold. That run on almonds goes to show that water hasn’t always been a deciding factor in how farmers figure out their crops, a situation that may be changing as droughts keep getting more severe.
