Almond's are a tough case for me. They're tasty, versatile and they're grown mostly right here in Northern California. But they're a big part of the whole agro-industrial system that's killing the bees. I suppose one could limit their consumption to uber-sustainable acorns like the ones grown in Davis's Village Homes.

Eat what you grow, grow what you eat

Recently, I was surprised to learn that 80% of the world's almonds are grown in a 600,000-acre section of California's Central Valley. Since almonds need to be pollinated by honey bees (apini apis) and there is only nectar available in that area when almonds are in bloom, the bees need to be trucked in from elsewhere. Every February, more than a million hives - containing 40,000 bees - get trucked in. By 2005, it proved necessary to import a 747 full of bees from Australia for the `pollination event.'

The mutual exposure of those two distantly separated bee populations results in the exchange of microbes and parasites. Therein may lie the cause of the North American Colony Collapse Disorder outbreak that began in 2006. Honey bees are also used to pollinate peaches, soybeans, apples, pears, cherries, raspberries, blackberries, cranberries, watermelons, cantaloupes, cucumbers and strawberries. There are dozens of others, ranging from those that simply benefit from the availability of pollinating bees to those (such as squash and vanilla) where the bees are absolutely indispensable..

a sibilant intake of breath

I don't know if it's known if the Colony Collapse Disorder and other problems that seem to be the result of the almond-agro-industrial bee nexus are also killing wild bees, though those populations are certainly not as healthy as they were even recently. We have some anecdotal evidence that organic bee populations aren't being struck by CCD, but I understand that those populations are still having horrible, ongoing mite infestations.

Eat what you grow, grow what you eat

Another thing about almonds is that since September 1, 2007, most packages of "raw" almonds have been sterilized using either fumigation by propylene oxide (a potential carcinogen that was briefly used as a gasoline additive for racecars) or steam heating. If you want truly raw almonds, you need to purchase them directly from the grower, which is impractical for most of the country. Finally, the pasteurization rule doesn't apply to almonds destined for export (are non-U.S. stomachs that much tougher?).  This rule was forced on the USDA by the big almond companies to prevent scares about food poisoning from damaging their revenues. Personally, I think consumers should be given the opportunity to buy truly raw almonds if they want, allowing them to take the very small risk of food poisoning (almonds sit on the ground for a time after being shaken from the tree, and they can be contaminated by sloppy practices in shelling and packing plants too).

Last year, I wrote a piece at the Ethicurean with more details on the USDA's raw almond scam and some pictures of an organic almond farm near Sacramento.