Almonds? Almonds are probably the most drought resistant plant grown for human consumption, it can grow almost anywhere without irrigation. In fact, too much moisture kills its roots.

It's much less than other crops and the description says it's assuming irrigation is the only source of water, that's not usually the case. It's probably not the case with almonds at all, unless you aim for rotten roots. It's a desert tree.

You should tell that to California last summer who ended up with that exact problem.

What problem?

That's nonsense. It's native to the Middle East, from the Levant to Pakistan. I see no good reason why growing it should be problematic in California. They either use it as an excuse to get more water for other crops, or they're doing something very wrong, though I have no idea what it could be.

They planted large orchards in a desert. The linked article doesn't make any statements about how much water each tree is getting, so I'm not sure what you would be calling nonsense.

It does state that California grows most of the world supply of almonds, perhaps the number of trees being supported by the imported water is much higher than you think?

Large orchards of desert trees. I get that the valley may be too dry even for almonds, but that won't turn them into a "relatively thirsty crop" as the article insists.

Its not the growing alone its the process of putting it in bags and selling it. Call it nonsense all you want the issue is very real.

Sorry, I was not clear. I'm skeptical about any of the numbers being accurate. After all it is anecdotal and I think it is too general and not grasps the problem well when your precision is 340-620. No more information than some soft drink production uses twice as much water.