With more than 30% of the country experiencing drought conditions, the United States is currently engulfed in what journalists and meterologists are calling one of the worst droughts in recent memory.

Water, as we are becoming increasingly aware, is now becoming scarce in many regions of the world. A quarter of the earth’s landmass is used as pasture for cattle and other livestock . Seventy percent of all the water consumed goes to agriculture—to grow food and feed. This is a good opportunity for not only the environmentally-conscious, but everyone to consider how their diet affects water consumption.

How can diet affect water usage? Consider the fact that that the citizens of the United States are the premier meat consumers in the world. It takes nearly half of the water consumed in America to grow feed for the cattle and other livestock which end up on the dinner plate. Additional copious quantities are used to wash away the animal’s manure, much of which then runs off into ground and surface water, contaminating wells, rivers, streams and lakes.

It takes up to a hundred times more water to produce a pound of meat than it does to produce a pound of wheat; a single pound of beef takes 5,407 gallons of water to produce.

Newsweek magazine graphically describes the water consumption to meat production ratio thus: “The water that goes into a 1,000 pound steer would float a destroyer.” 

In 2011, Americans consumed the equivalent of 171 pounds of meat for every man, woman and child over 14 years of age.  Imagine the amount of water it took to produce this much meat!

The foods we choose to eat have a direct impact on the health of the environment, specifically the availability of precious water resources. Even the most water intensive grain—rice—requires only one tenth as much water to produce per pound as meat.

The population of the earth is increasing substantially every year. With more mouths to feed we have to use the earth’s resources more intelligently. Can we afford to use up the underground supplies of water on a product that requires 5,400 gallons per pound when substantially less water-intensive vegetarian alternatives are available to satisfy our nutritional requirements? One year’s worth of food for a pure vegetarian takes less water to produce than that required to produce a month’s food for a meat eater.

It is very unlikely that consumers will be advised of this information in their efforts to preserve water, or when water rationing is imposed: that these restrictions are in part attributable to the amount of water being siphoned off to raise grain for cattle and other livestock. By making a choice to eliminate meat from our diets, we are making the biggest possible step we can towards preserving our water resources.

Reference: Beyond Beef: Jeremy Rifkin