The Lucrative Crop That’s Not Cut Out for the California Drought
California almonds are popular and lucrative for farmers, but they also require a lot of water that the state doesn’t have:
Products like almond butter and almond milk have also become increasingly popular in health food stores. But growing almonds in an arid climate requires lots of water. In fact, Westlands’ almond orchards suck up nearly 100 billion gallons of water a year. Cotton, by contrast, needs 40 percent less water per acre, and tomatoes require about half as much water as almonds. Also, unlike cotton and tomatoes, almonds are a “permanent” crop, meaning the land they’re grown on can’t lie fallow when water is scarce. “It means farmers really do need to get a hold of water in dry years in order to keep the trees alive,” explained Ellen Hanak, a senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California and an expert on water.
Almonds, in short, aren’t cut out for droughts. And unless the coming months bring a deluge of rain and snow to California, the almond growers of the western San Joaquin Valley could be in for a catastrophic year.
Trailers Are for Travelers
After weeks of surveillance, the Home Depot security officers knew they were onto something big, but they didn’t quite know how big. They didn’t know that the events of that day would unleash a bizarre yearlong investigation that will culminate in Oakland next week with the beginning of the sentencing process for Davenport, Hay, and Broderick on federal charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. They didn’t know that the trio’s trail would lead through at least 24 states, and that the investigation’s nationwide scope would draw in the FBI and the US Attorney’s Office. They didn’t know that the dent the three managed to make in Home Depot’s pocketbook, originally estimated at $400,000, would soar toward an estimated $1 million.
Hate Man
From the time he was young boy, Mark Hawthorne understood the power of words. His father was a reporter for the Associated Press and his mother was a school teacher. So when Hawthorne landed his dream job and became a reporter for The New York Times, everything seemed to fall into place. Except that it all fell apart. These days, Hawthorne uses the power of words in a different way. Mostly, it’s to say, “fuck you” or “I hate you.” For the past 25 years, Hawthorne has lived on the streets of Berkeley, where he’s developed a following and is known by the moniker “Hate Man.”