Is it ethical to buy walnuts from California?

These days it seems all the nuts come from the Golden State. Can't I find any closer to home?
Email with your ethical dilemma
Pile of walnuts. Studio.
Walnut whip: California dominates the market in nuts. Photograph: incamerastock /Alamy

There's no denying it: California is a nut superpower. Since a 2007 free-trade agreement, production of almonds alone has doubled to 2 billion pounds in weight a year, walnuts are the state's seventh-largest export commodity, and vineyards have been torn up in favour of nut trees.

Actually China is the world's largest walnut producer, and a massive consumer too, but in a coals-to-Newcastle situation, California dominates the market there, too. Meanwhile Chinese producers flood Europe with pine nuts despite the Mediterranean pine nut being one of the most delicious and nutritionally outstanding foodstuffs on earth. In short, it's nuts.

Brave environmental experts are speaking up, saying that the fields now covered in nut trees need to lie fallow to conserve water. I say brave, because this would mean letting a cash-rich crop die. While the world market is screaming for more nuts there's likely to be very little appetite to do the right thing ecologically.

Some nuts are grown in inherently sustainable circumstances. Brazil-nut trees, for instance, only produce well in healthy primary forests such as in Peru's Amazon. The period from November to February is a no-take zone. This is not a tree-hugging conservation move: if you get hit on the head by a cocos (the shell containing the nuts) falling from 150ft, you've pretty much had it.

Traditional producers know the forest and produce for the long term, but there are far less scrupulous businessmen involved in nut production. Middlemen and brokers now haunt the global supply chain, and the producers are distanced from the profit and product. In parts of Delhi and Mumbai, where almonds are shelled by hand (cheaper than mechanised shelling in the US), child labour is endemic.

Fairtrade provides a great alternative to unscrupulous buyers paying peanuts to producers. Liberation foods at (owner of Harry's Nuts!) is the only farmer-owned Fairtrade nut company in the UK, representing 22,000 producers. It has just taken its first shipment of macadamias from Malawi.

You can still find nuts surprisingly close to home if you plan ahead. Right now you can pre-order UK-grown wet walnuts from They're in season for the blink of an eye – from early October to mid-November – but the good news is they can be stored for six months and they're delicious.

Green crush

Priscilla and her son Mishek live in rural Zambia and have been trying out a Pico solar light in their home. They are big fans. The high-power rechargeable LED light offers a clean and free alternative to lighting with kerosene and/or candles, and also allows Priscilla to charge her phone. We know off-grid lighting is increasingly important, but how much can solar technology really alleviate poverty? The next step in the process is a $650,000 grant from Google to SolarAid which will aim to shed some light on the effects and impact of solar technology. According to SolarAid this research will provide the robust evidence needed to get more governments to support renewables.

Greenspeak: eco-thrillers {i:ku 0–ril} noun

Fiction sub-category where the plot is driven by eco-terrorism and the pillaging of the Earth. Russell Hunter's new novel Solid Oil revolves around the pursuit of lithium, found in rainforests. Swampy meets Michael Crichton

If you have an ethical dilemma, email Lucy at