At a recent conference on nutrition and agriculture that I attended, one of the speakers made a casual comment about how much water it takes to grow almonds, thereby perpetuating a widespread misunderstanding.

Today, we're going to try to put that into context.

Hello, I'm Monica Reinagle, and this is the Nutrition Diva podcast, a show where we take a closer look at nutrition news, research, and rumors, so that you can make more informed choices

about what you eat. Although I do enjoy them throughout the year,

our household definitely goes through a lot more almonds at this time of year. Everything from the

tins of spiced nuts I give as hostess gifts, to the special cookies I make for my gluten-free

friends, to that big bowl of unshelled nuts, complete with Grandma's silver

nutcracker, that serves as the centerpiece on our holiday table. And apparently, it's not just me.

According to industry figures, sales of almonds and other nuts reliably jump way up during the

winter season. At the same time, many people continue to worry about the

environmental impact of almonds and almond farming, specifically the charge that almonds are uniquely

wasteful when it comes to water. For example, maybe you've heard it said that it takes a gallon of

water to produce a single

almond. So I thought this would be the perfect time to take a closer look at the actual water

footprint of almonds. What does the most current research tell us? And how does it square with this

persistent belief about almonds and water usage?

It is true that almonds are a very water-intensive crop.

Crops that grow on trees just require more water than vegetables, legumes, or grains,

because they have longer growing seasons, they have much deeper root systems,

and because there's just a lot more plant material to sustain relative to the part we actually

harvest and eat. But contrary to popular lore, almonds are no more water-intensive than other similar crops. When grown in

comparable climates, pistachios, walnuts, even olives, all use a similar amount of water. In fact,

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