What it’s like to live in California and everyone is talking about the drought? There is a forum app called NextDoor, where neighbors talk about local issues. There is a lot of talk about our current drought, where water restrictions are now enforced. We cannot use irrigation only overhead watering for instance. Since when did monitoring personal water usage become so fascist while allowing even more livestock ranchers leasing more lands in Pt. Reyes. Do they understand that only 5% of water usage is from households, as compared to 80 to 90% of water consumption is from Animal Agriculture. *
These people on NextDoor are constantly complaining about; “Oh I saw someone power washing their house during our drought!” I live in the land of “humane meat,” so we already know and from the likes of my comments on these posts, they seem to like to stick their head in the sand, but do I ever get to mention the amounts?
The meat and dairy industries don’t just treat animals as commodities.
These industries view our shared planet and everything that sustains it as
an impediment to their wealth and expansion.Take water usage, for example.
In the meat industry, the cows subjected to a life as biological machines
consume an artificial diet to fatten then up for slaughter. Thousands of
pounds of corn, grass, soy, and grains are consumed. All of this requires
major water usage. One pound of beef requires 2,500 gallons of water. This
is an astonishing and profoundly disturbing statistic. 2,500 gallons is
the equivalent of 145 showers – eating just one pound of steak has the
same impact as nearly five months of showering.What about dairy? Most of us know that female cows are artificially
inseminated. We know that their calves are stolen from them at birth.
The male calves are destined to become veal. The female calves are
destined for a life as milk-producing machines.But the water usage by the dairy industry is just as alarming and
unethical. It takes 1,000 gallons of water to produce just one gallon of
milk. This is the equivalent of 58 showers for the average human being.1
Water is used for everything from irrigation to animal consumption to
spraying down equipment. Water is used when washing manure and the piles
of filth from the barns.Water is a finite resource and millions of people in the global south lack
access to clean water. Access to clean water is a human rights issue. The
runoff and pollution from the meat and dairy industries creates an
ecological disaster that threaten the health and lives of anyone living
near the “farms,” factory farms, and feedlots. The synthetic fertilizers
used by these industries are a primary cause of dead zones in U.S.
waterways. Dead zones are defined as
a place in which nothing happens or in which no life exists* 2Footnotes 1.
Studes cited on meme
https://www.watercalculator.org/footprint/water-footprint-beef-industrial-pasture/
*2. Oxford dictionary
*80-90% of water usage from Animal Agriculture
“How Important is Irrigation to US Agriculture?” USDA: Economic Research Service. October 12, 2016
SOLUTIONS: Adapt a vegan lifestyle, it’s so easy to do! Reduce your water footprint, using low flush toilets, use a car wash, reduce lawns and plant more water friendly plants. (In the works!) Cut your showers to less than 5 minutes, only run the dishwasher when necessary and full. Turn off water brushing teeth, and washing hands. Cut your laundry usage to full loads, update appliances. #conciouschallenge #govegan