Quit beating up on farmers and almonds

Regarding Kathleen Miles’ Jan. 8 letter about the farmers and irrigation water: If the farmers were denied water as the writer insinuates, then the affordable, abundant supply of food would come from…where? The Midwest? Hope you like corn and soybeans.

Perhaps the writer should talk to some of these huge, corporate, agribusiness enterprises she speaks of. She’ll have a hard time finding any. If she did her homework, she’d find the large majority on the east and west side are family farms. And, yes, some are large.

She beats up on the almonds as everyone else has. It’s interesting that almonds get the brunt of the water usage drivel because someone discovered it takes one gallon of water to make one nut. Try researching pistachios, walnuts, oranges, lemons, cherries, pecans, an ear of corn, an 8-ounce steak, quart of milk, one cantaloupe, one watermelon, a pound of rice or a pound of raisins.

It’s time we quit beating up on the farmers. It gets old.

This story was originally published January 21, 2017 at 12:46 PM with the headline "Quit beating up on farmers and almonds."