. >> reporter: but, says almond farmer brad gleason, so what? >> i'll show you why we're using so much water. there is a lot of water that's going into forming that nut. >> reporter: but a lot less water per ounce of protein, says gleason, than the competition. >> if you look at the amount of water that's used in the amount of protein that we generate, we're by far more efficient than pork, chicken, beef. >> reporter: especially beef. one ounce of beef, the protein equivalent of about a dozen almonds, requires 106 gallons of water to produce, even more, if it's raised on irrigated pasture like this one. and who eats just one ounce of beef? >> we've got 320 million people trying to eat three times a day. that's a billion meals a day and it's going to have to come from water somehow. >> reporter: and if you include the rest of the world, even the arid southern central valley with its unique soils, may be a life saver. unfortunately, these days getting water here means drilling ever deeper into the aquifer, a practice that threatens the state's gro