1857 Gallons of Water for One Pound of Beef
Photograph via Wikimedia Commons
Y'all have already wasted hundreds of gallons of h2o today, and y'all probably don't fifty-fifty realize it. Where is all this invisible water going, you lot inquire? The respond is simple: our food. Yous will never run across the majority of water y'all consume in your lifetime, and this is because food comprises ⅔ of the average American'south water footprint. Nothing that lands on your dinner plate gets there without the use of water: crops tin't flourish without water; the grain we feed our livestock needs h2o to grow; and even the virtually processed, artificial foods utilize water during the manufacturing process. In fact, the agriculture industry is responsible for approximately 80% of the water used in the U.S. So—how to cut downward on your water footprint without starving yourself? Information technology's of import to realize that when it comes to h2o, non all foods are created equal. In general, meat has a much larger water footprint than fruits, vegetables and grains. This is considering of the massive amounts of virtual water that go into creating food for livestock. Beef—which is the 2nd virtually popular meat in the U.S.—has the largest water footprint out of all types of meat, taking a whopping ane,800 gallons of water per pound. Obviously, cutting meat out of your diet birthday would exist a corking fashion to curb your personal water footprint. But if the thought of living a burger-free existence is besides much to conduct, not to worry—in that location are other ways to reduce your water footprint without giving up steak forever.
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For some tips on where to offset, VICE Impact talked with Peter Hanlon, Deputy Director of Programs at GRACE Communications Foundation—a leading, national not-turn a profit devoted to promoting sustainability in nutrient, h2o and free energy systems—to get some answers. What goes into our water footprint, and how does food fit into that? When we talk about the water footprint, it's really almost "virtual water" use versus "direct water" use. Most people are used to thinking about their direct h2o employ—so, water that comes out of the tap, out of the shower, flushing the toilet, etc. But virtual water is the h2o that goes into producing the food nosotros eat, the energy we use, and all the products we purchase. People never see their virtual water employ, so it's a harder concept to grasp. Merely it's really a fundamental concept, because the largest part of our water footprint is the water that'due south used to grow the food that we eat. Why does meat have a greater h2o footprint than fruits, vegetables or grains? There'southward something called a "feed conversion ratio," which tells us how quickly livestock can turn whatever grain or feed that they're eating into mass. Some animals are pretty efficient, just cows are not and so practiced at that. It takes a lot of grains or grasses to produce and grow these larger animals for meat. And all those grains and grasses take water to grow in turn. So the water footprint of meat is greater, because you're using products from lower on the nutrient chain to grow something larger. Are there differences between the water footprints of meat raised on a factory farm versus meat raised on a gratuitous-range farm? When we're talking about raising livestock, a key concept to understand is that the water footprint is actually fabricated of three parts: there'due south the green h2o footprint, the blueish water footprint and the grey h2o footprint. The green water footprint, when it comes downward to it, is substantially rainfall. The blue water footprint is the amount of water that's extracted from reservoirs, surface water and groundwater to irrigate fields. And then the grey h2o footprint is an indicator of the amount of pollution y'all're causing. For example, if you lot look at beefiness that is pasture raised, we're talking about a light-green water footprint because the animals are eating grass that'south beingness fed by rainwater. Only if y'all look at a more industrial system, we're talking most a larger bluish water footprint; those cattle starting time on grass likewise, merely eventually they are switched over to feedlots where they're fed grains which are much more intensive in their needs for irrigation. So there'due south also the pollution aspect, or greyness h2o footprint. On a pasture-raised organization, the waste that the cattle are producing is actually used as fertilizer, so it'south a benefit. Merely if you're talking about an industrial organisation, you take 100,000 head of cattle all pooping in one place. And all that waste product is typically moved into a manure lagoon, which is a massive swimming of waste that oft tin leak. Waste product can leak into the groundwater, it tin leak into nearby bodies of water, so instead of that waste being a benefit, it can actually be a pollutant. On a personal level—if y'all don't want to go full vegetarian, how tin you reduce your water footprint and still consume meat? First, swallow less meat and better meat. In terms of "less meat," you can get "flexitarian," you can practice "Meatless Mondays," or you can even just shrink the portion of meat that you're serving. Those are all positive things and you don't necessarily take to "become vegetarian." And then in terms of "better meat," if yous choose pasture raised meat certified by a quality third party group—something like Animal Welfare Approved or Certified Humane—you tin can trust that meat will have less impact on water resource than conventionally raised meat. The second method to reduce your water footprint, would exist eating fewer processed foods. And then finally, the third method of reducing your water footprint is to waste less food. About 40 percent of the food that'south raised in the Us is ultimately never eaten, and that accounts for nearly a quarter of the fresh water we swallow in this country. All that waste is but an abhorrent abuse of resources that we have. Even the simplest affair in the earth, like planning your meals before yous become to the marketplace, can salve those resources. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Whole foods utilize less water than processed foods. One time you lot start processing foods, that takes additional water for many different services—anything from creating oils that are used to melt foods to powering the plants that are processing these foods. That all raises the h2o footprint.
Source: https://www.vice.com/en/article/d3z8az/1800-gallons-of-water-goes-into-one-pound-of-meat
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