Nuts

California produces something between 50% and 80% of the world's almonds. A monocrop, with other species rigorously repressed, covering over 350,000 hectares. Almost one quarter of California's agricultural export value is almonds. Almonds depend on honeybees for pollination; 1.6 million hives are trucked to the almond farms every year - 60% of the managed hives in the US. Many of these bees are part of an annual trek around the US that may include apples and cherries in Washington state; alfalfa, sunflowers and clover in the Dakotas; squash in Texas; cranberries in Wisconsin; blueberries in Michigan; and clementines in Florida - multiple journeys per year of thousands of kilometers

A high proportion of colonies perish each year under this system. 'Colony Collapse Disorder' (CCD) seems to have entered the general vocabulary - it's surprising how often I get asked about it by non-beekeepers. In my opinion, it is unique to US colonies subjected to this stressful lifestyle, combined with the vast monocrop areas and the high input of biocides that are applied to most of the crops concerned. Beekeepers all over the world lose colonies to disease, drought, starvation, cold, flood, predators and pests but not in the still mysterious, 'overnight dissappearance' way associated with CCD

California almond production is also in trouble. The combination of a climate crisis and ever increasing demand for ever scarcer irrigation water is damaging yields and pushing up costs. Profitability is badly hit and some farmers are substituting other crops. As the global temperature rachets up, it is by no means certain that the crop has a secure future in the state

A cold valley in Warwickshire is no place for an almond tree. They crave hot Mediterranean summers. This one was a present from a good friend and has done remarkably well - in that it has grown quite tall and produces blossom every year. At 1.5 degrees C, under a grey sky just beginning to deliver sleet, our bees are not keen to help with pollination. We have never seen an almond, and I doubt we ever will. The blossom is always at the top of the tree, so this is a zoom shot - the leaden sky is actually quite helpful