Maybe those agricultural business won't be able to grow anything anymore and go out of business. Not to worry, we can always import almonds from other countries which lack any kind of environmental policy. But at least we will be able to continue Building Great Apps (TM).
Almonds originally came out of countries like Spain, Portugal, Greece and Italy. All of which are members of the EU, which in most cases has stricter environmental policies than just about anywhere else in the world.
The problem with your statement is that, in this case, we are that country lacking suitable environmental policy. If almonds weren't brought to California, they would potentially be more expensive, but they would also be grown in regions where they naturally occur and under laws that are more strict than our own.
