California is suffering from the worst drought in over 100 years, with 80% of the state classified as areas of “extreme drought.” Some experts predict the scarcity will last for decades. In response to the extreme drought, the federal government has granted California livestock ranchers at least *$100 million* in additional funding for disaster recovery relief. Meat and dairy require an enormous amount of water before making it onto your plate. 1 pound of California hamburger beef requires 2,463 gallons of water. 880 gallons of water are needed to produce just 1 gallon of milk. 1 egg equals 60-120 gallons of water. To be fair -- there is one plant that sucks up a ton of water: alfalfa. Unfortunately, almost none of it is cultivated for us humans, at least not directly. Alfalfa is grown on over 1 million acres in California, primarily to feed livestock, and sucks up more water than any other crop in the state. Worse yet, California alfalfa growers are shipping a significant portion of their harvest to Asia – effectively exporting 100 billion gallons of water a year from a state suffering from extreme drought conditions and apparently doing everything imaginable to conserve water. More than 90% of California’s water goes to agriculture, yet residents have been urged to reduce their personal water consumption by 20% and face fines up to $500/day for “failure to implement conservation requirements.” Humans consume less than 1 gallon of water each day. And while we’re all taking shorter showers and refraining from watering the lawn, ranchers use up to 180 gallons of water for *each* cow *each* day. Anyone else shocked by these numbers?
Posted on: Fri, 25 Jul 2014 15:58:15 +0000
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