In the weeks following California governor Jerry Brown’s historic speech heralding water-use restrictions in the state, aspersion casting has quickly become a full-contact sport in the golden West. The almond farmers—and their gallon-per-nut crop—were the first to draw ire, but it hasn’t stopped there. Big Nut fought back, pointing dehydrated fingers at other water guzzlers. Looking at you, developers. And lentils. And other farmers. Nobody wants this hot potato. (Fun fact: you need 24 gallons of water to produce eight ounces of potato.) Turns out just about every water hog in California is busy shifting blame. Confused as to whom you should hold responsible this week? We did our best to sort it all out.

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Illustration by Lily Nelson.

a) “My fellow growers of other crops calculate that it takes about 168 gallons of water to produce a single watermelon. And 50 gallons for a cantaloupe. That head of broccoli that you feel good about serving to your child? Thirty-five gallons. A single ear of corn requires roughly 40 gallons.” – Brad Gleason, president of West Hill Farm Services, which manages pistachio and almond orchards, in Los Angeles Timesop-ed on March 25, 2015

b) “According to the Times, an ounce of peas takes 45 gallons, an ounce of lentils takes 71 gallons, and an ounce of beef takes 106 gallons.” – Almond Hullers and Processors Association press release, “8 Facts about Almonds, Agriculture, and the Drought,” April 8, 2015

c) “Actually, almonds use less than 12 percent of irrigated farmland and about 8 percent of the water going for agricultural use. Put another way: about 90 percent of irrigated farmland in California produces other crops.” – Richard Waycott, C.E.O. of the Almond Board of California, in Sacramento Beeop-ed on April 11, 2015