Farmers are struggling to keep crops from withering on the vine thanks to a severe drought affecting more than 4.5% of the continental United States and turning on the sprinklers could make the problem worse.

California, which grows two-thirds of our fresh fruits, vegetables and nuts , experienced a drought that lasted from 2011 to March 2019 . The World Resources Institute estimates that more than 25% of the worlds crops are grown in regions with high water stress (were looking at you, California almonds).

The shift toward more meat-based diets is becoming a major problem that puts pressure on water resources around the world, said Heather Cooley, director of research at the Pacific Institute , a nonprofit focused on finding solutions to worldwide water challenges. We need to think about how our diets impact water use.

Some foods require a lot more water to produce than others and our appetites for them could exacerbate water issues. These foods are taxing an already scarce resource.

Almonds

The iconic California crop is a major water hog. It takes a whopping 3.2 gallons of water to grow a single almond and, with more than 1.3 million acres of almond orchards in California, it is the most extensively irrigated crop in the state. It takes almond trees an average of three years to start bearing fruit .