Understanding Almonds: Water Use, Pollination, and Responsible Farming
Almonds in a Changing World
Almonds have become a symbol of modern, plant-based eating. They are used in everything from bakery products and muesli to plant-based drinks and natural snacks. Yet behind this familiar ingredient lies a complex agricultural story shaped by geography, climate, farming practices, and global supply chains.
For European consumers who care about sustainability, transparency, and food origin, it is no longer enough to know what is inside a package — it matters how those almonds were grown, where they come from, and what kind of farming systems support them.
Scientific research, international food authorities, and environmental agencies increasingly show that almond production can look very different depending on whether it takes place in water-stressed, industrialised regions or in smaller, climate-adapted agricultural landscapes.
This article explores that context in a factual and balanced way:
how almonds are regulated, how they are produced in major exporting regions, and how environmental and food-safety systems shape what ultimately reaches European consumers.
Almonds and Water Use: Why Production Context Matters
Almonds are widely recognized as a nutritious food. At the same time, scientific research shows that the rapid growth in global almond demand has created significant resource challenges in certain production regions, particularly where agriculture depends heavily on irrigation in water-stressed environments.
Over the past decade, consumption of almonds and almond-based products - including almond milk - has increased markedly in the United States and internationally. Market data indicate particularly strong growth during the mid-2010s, followed by continued annual increases. From a European perspective, this trend is relevant because a substantial share of almonds sold in the EU originates from California, making European consumers indirectly connected to the environmental conditions under which these almonds are produced.
Water Requirements of Almond Cultivation
Life-cycle assessments consistently classify almonds as a water-intensive crop when grown in arid or semi-arid regions. Estimates vary depending on methodology, irrigation efficiency, and climate, but comparative studies suggest that:
- the production of a single almond requires several liters of water, and
- almond-based beverages have a higher water footprint than many other plant-based drinks, largely due to on-farm irrigation requirements.
These figures are used in environmental research as comparative indicators, rather than precise, universally fixed values.
California’s Water Context
California is characterized by recurring droughts and long-term water stress, a situation documented extensively by public authorities and scientific institutions. Between 2012 and 2016, the state experienced one of the most severe droughts on record, leading to heightened scrutiny of agricultural water use.
According to official state and federal data, a significant share of California’s agricultural water consumption is allocated to permanent crops, including almonds and pistachios. Because almond trees are perennial, they require irrigation every year and cannot be temporarily fallowed during drought periods without long-term economic consequences.
Environmental assessments further show that almond orchards have increasingly expanded into hotter and drier inland regions, such as parts of the San Joaquin Valley. In these areas, limited surface water availability has resulted in a growing reliance on groundwater extraction. Multiple studies warn that sustained groundwater overuse may contribute to aquifer depletion and land subsidence if not carefully managed.
Why This Is a Systemic Issue
These challenges are widely described as systemic rather than individual. International and governmental reports emphasize that they relate to:
- crop selection in water-scarce regions
- long-term groundwater governance
- the balance between global food demand and local resource limits
Organizations such as the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Resources Institute underline that water-intensive crops grown in drought-prone areas require particularly careful management to remain environmentally sustainable over time.
Pasteurisation and the use of crop protection products in almond farming
In different parts of the world, almonds are subject to specific food-safety regulations before they can be sold. In the United States, for example, almonds intended for the domestic and export market must undergo a validated treatment designed to reduce the risk of certain food-borne pathogens. This requirement has been in place since 2007 and forms part of a national almond food-safety programme. Approved treatments include methods such as steam processing, heat treatment, blanching, or the use of propylene oxide (PPO), provided that they achieve the required level of microbial reduction. These measures are intended to improve food safety by lowering the presence of bacteria such as Salmonella on the surface of the nuts.
These treatments are recognised by US authorities and the almond industry as technical food-safety measures. The different methods vary in their processing conditions, but they are all designed to meet the same public-health objective: reducing microbiological risk in the supply chain.
Crop Protection Products in Almond Cultivation
Like many agricultural crops, almonds can be affected by insects, plant diseases and weeds. For this reason, growers in many producing regions use crop protection products to manage these pressures. Such products are regulated by national and international authorities, and food placed on the EU market must comply with strict maximum residue limits set under European food law.
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) regularly evaluates the safety of active substances and establishes residue thresholds to ensure that foods sold in the European Union remain within levels considered safe for consumers. Imported almonds are subject to the same legal standards and monitoring as EU-grown products.
Aflatoxins and Food-Safety Controls
Aflatoxins are naturally occurring toxins produced by certain moulds that can develop in nuts and other crops under specific storage or climatic conditions. Because of their potential health impact, they are tightly regulated in the European Union. EU law sets maximum permitted levels for aflatoxin B1 and for total aflatoxins in almonds intended for human consumption, and these limits are enforced through routine official controls at borders and within the internal market.
From time to time, consignments of nuts from various origins — including different producing countries — may be found to exceed these thresholds and are therefore rejected, reprocessed or withdrawn from the market. This system is designed to ensure a high level of consumer protection and transparency in the European food supply.
Pollination and Honey Bee Health in Almond Farming: What Research Shows
A growing body of scientific research indicates that elevated honey bee colony losses in California are not caused by a single factor, but rather by the combined effects of multiple environmental stressors. These include long-term exposure to certain plant protection products, loss of diverse habitats, and increased disease and parasite pressure.This multifactorial understanding is reflected in assessments published by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).
A central element of almond production in California is the widespread use of migratory beekeeping. Each year, approximately two-thirds of all commercial honey bee colonies in the United States are transported to California to pollinate almond orchards — a higher concentration of managed pollinators than required by any other crop globally.
According to data from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), almonds require significantly more bee colonies per hectare than other pollination-dependent crops such as apples or berries.
Scientific studies suggest that the simultaneous concentration of large numbers of colonies in a limited geographic area suggestedly increases the risk of disease and parasite transmission, particularly when colonies originate from different regions (Ahn et al., Environmental Research, 2020). This creates conditions under which pathogens can spread more easily between hives.
Honey bees evolved in heterogeneous landscapes with continuous access to diverse floral resources. Large-scale monocultures, by contrast, provide an abundant but short-lived food source, followed by periods with limited forage availability. Research indicates that this nutritional bottleneck can hinder the recovery and long-term resilience of colonies after the almond bloom (Klein et al., Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 2017).
Another well-documented concern relates to sublethal effects of certain pesticides. EFSA evaluations show that even when substances do not cause immediate mortality, they may:
- impair the immune system of bees
- affect navigation and foraging behavior
- increase susceptibility to diseases and parasites
Such effects often manifest with delay, contributing to weakened colonies and increased winter losses rather than acute die-offs during pollination itself.
Honey bees can forage over distances of up to five kilometers (EFSA, 2013). As a result, exposure to plant protection products may also occur beyond individual orchards, depending on the surrounding agricultural landscape. This highlights that pollinator health is influenced by regional farming systems as a whole, not solely by single producers.
Investigative reporting by The Guardian, along with analyses from the Center for Biological Diversity, notes that while almond pollination represents a major source of income for many U.S. beekeepers, it is also associated with above-average colony losses. Researchers link these losses to the cumulative stress experienced during the pollination season.
Environmental scientist Nate Donley has described this system as a high-risk model for managed pollinators, emphasizing that the issue reflects structural challenges of intensive agricultural pollination, rather than the actions of individual farmers.
From Global Systems to Local Roots
The global almond supply connects very different agricultural worlds. On one side are highly mechanised, export-oriented production systems designed to serve worldwide demand. On the other are smaller, regionally rooted farms where almond trees grow as part of long-established rural landscapes.
Both models exist within legal and scientific frameworks, and both are shaped by climate, water availability, market forces, and regulation. What differs is how these systems interact with their local environments — and how much room they leave for biodiversity, soil health, and long-term resilience.
For many conscious consumers, this is where origin begins to matter.
Our almonds from Sardinia
In southern Sardinia, in the Marmilla region, almond farming follows a very different rhythm from that of large-scale orchards. Here, almonds are grown in dry, open landscapes without irrigation, relying on seasonal rainfall and carefully managed soil ecology. The trees grow slowly, shaped by pruning, wind, sun, and time rather than by external inputs.
In this environment, almond trees are planted from certified organic nurseries, each with a plant passport that guarantees traceability. They are spaced according to precise planting patterns that help the roots access limited water and nutrients naturally. The soil is not mechanically worked — grasses and wild plants are left to grow and are cut back to form a living green cover that protects moisture, supports microorganisms, and encourages biodiversity.
Even after harvest, nothing is wasted. Shells and leaves are returned to the land through composting, becoming humus that feeds the next season’s growth. In some cases, plant residues also become part of local livestock systems, connecting orchards, animals, and soil in a circular agricultural cycle.
Almonds are kept in their natural shell for as long as possible, because the shell itself acts as the best protective packaging — preserving freshness without the need for artificial treatments.
This way of farming is not faster. It is not designed for volume. It is designed for continuity.
Read the story of our passionate almond producer Antonio Vinci, and how his organic almond orchard in Sardinia has been shaped by patience, mathematics, biodiversity, and a deep respect for the land.
Because behind every almond there is not just a harvest — there is a place, a season, and a farmer who chose how it should grow.
Akentannos: May you live to 100 years!
Sources:
- FAO (2018): Why Bees Matter – The Importance of Pollinators
- EFSA (2013, 2018,2023): Bees and pesticides: updated guidance for assessing risks
- USDA (2020): Honey Bee Colonies Report
- Klein et al. (2007): Importance of pollinators in changing landscapes for world crops
- The Guardian (2020): Like sending bees to war
- Trulygoodfoods: The truth about raw almonds
- Environment Working Group: The health risks of pesticides in Stanislau County
- Dario Dongo, Corrado Bellia: Sicilian almonds vs Californian almonds, an ocean of differences
- California Department of Water Resources (.gov): Agricultural Water Use Efficiency
