How Many Gallons of Water to Raise One Pound of Beef

May 31, 2022 Post a Comment

Photograph via Wikimedia Commons

You have already wasted hundreds of gallons of water today, and you probably don't even realize it. Where is all this invisible water going, you inquire? The reply is simple: our food.

You lot volition never see the majority of water you consume in your lifetime, and this is because food comprises ⅔ of the average American'due south water footprint. Nil that lands on your dinner plate gets there without the utilize of water: crops can't flourish without h2o; the grain we feed our livestock needs water to grow; and even the near processed, artificial foods utilise water during the manufacturing procedure. In fact, the agriculture industry is responsible for approximately 80% of the water used in the U.S.

So—how to cut down on your water footprint without starving yourself? Information technology'southward important to realize that when information technology comes to water, not all foods are created equal. In full general, meat has a much larger h2o footprint than fruits, vegetables and grains. This is because of the massive amounts of virtual h2o that go into creating food for livestock. Beefiness—which is the second well-nigh pop meat in the U.S.—has the largest water footprint out of all types of meat, taking a whopping 1,800 gallons of water per pound. Manifestly, cutting meat out of your diet altogether would be a great way to curb your personal water footprint. Merely if the idea of living a burger-gratis existence is too much to conduct, not to worry—in that location are other ways to reduce your h2o footprint without giving up steak forever.

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For some tips on where to start, VICE Impact talked with Peter Hanlon, Deputy Director of Programs at GRACE Communications Foundation—a leading, national non-profit devoted to promoting sustainability in food, water and energy systems—to go some answers.

What goes into our h2o footprint, and how does food fit into that?

When we talk most the water footprint, information technology's really about "virtual water" employ versus "direct water" use. Most people are used to thinking about their direct water utilise—so, water that comes out of the tap, out of the shower, flushing the toilet, etc. Simply virtual water is the water that goes into producing the nutrient we consume, the energy we use, and all the products nosotros purchase. People never see their virtual h2o use, and then it's a harder concept to grasp. But it'south really a fundamental concept, because the largest part of our h2o footprint is the water that's used to grow the food that we eat.

Why does meat have a greater h2o footprint than fruits, vegetables or grains?

There's something chosen a "feed conversion ratio," which tells us how chop-chop livestock can plough whatever grain or feed that they're eating into mass. Some animals are pretty efficient, merely cows are not so skillful 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 plow. So the water footprint of meat is greater, because you're using products from lower on the food concatenation to grow something larger.

Are there differences between the water footprints of meat raised on a manufactory subcontract versus meat raised on a gratis-range farm?

When we're talking about raising livestock, a key concept to sympathise is that the water footprint is really fabricated of iii parts: there'due south the green water footprint, the blueish water footprint and the grey water footprint. The greenish h2o footprint, when it comes downwardly to information technology, is essentially rainfall. The blueish h2o footprint is the corporeality of water that'south extracted from reservoirs, surface water and groundwater to gargle fields. And then the grey water footprint is an indicator of the amount of pollution you're causing.

For example, if you lot look at beef that is pasture raised, nosotros're talking about a greenish h2o footprint because the animals are eating grass that's being fed by rainwater. But if you wait at a more industrial organization, we're talking about a larger bluish water footprint; those cattle showtime on grass as well, but somewhen they are switched over to feedlots where they're fed grains which are much more intensive in their needs for irrigation.

Then there's also the pollution attribute, or grey h2o footprint. On a pasture-raised system, the waste that the cattle are producing is actually used as fertilizer, and so information technology's a benefit. Merely if you're talking about an industrial organisation, you accept 100,000 head of cattle all pooping in one place. And all that waste matter is typically moved into a manure lagoon, which is a massive pond of waste matter that often can leak. Waste can leak into the groundwater, it tin can leak into nearby bodies of h2o, so instead of that waste beingness a benefit, it can actually be a pollutant.

On a personal level—if yous don't want to go total vegetarian, how tin can you lot reduce your water footprint and still consume meat?

First, eat less meat and improve meat. In terms of "less meat," you tin go "flexitarian," yous can do "Meatless Mondays," or you tin even just shrink the portion of meat that yous're serving. Those are all positive things and you don't necessarily take to "go vegetarian." And and then in terms of "better meat," if you choose pasture raised meat certified by a quality third political party grouping—something similar Brute Welfare Approved or Certified Humane—yous tin can trust that meat will have less affect on water resource than conventionally raised meat.

The second method to reduce your water footprint, would be eating fewer processed foods.
Whole foods use less h2o than candy foods. Once you start processing foods, that takes additional h2o 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 water footprint.

And and so finally, the third method of reducing your water footprint is to waste less food. About 40 percent of the food that's raised in the US is ultimately never eaten, and that accounts for virtually a quarter of the fresh water we consume in this state. All that waste matter is just an abhorrent abuse of resources that we accept. Even the simplest thing in the earth, like planning your meals before you become to the marketplace, can salvage those resource.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.