It's not enough that we have to worry about monitoring our energy consumption to reduce global warming, but evidence being released everyday indicates a global water crisis as well. We already know that just one latte from your fave coffee house requires over 50 gallons of water , but are we wasting water by eating meat, too? In honor of World Water Day (that's today), let's investigate.
This article in GOOD magazine claims that producing a pound of chicken requires 287 gallons - a whole 281 MORE than it takes to flush a toilet. Interesting. Their transparency chart depicts just how much water is used by a number of different practices - latte-drinking and meat-eating included.
Click to enlarge
According to this chart, one baked potato = 7 gallons, a pint of beer = 10 gallons, one apple = 18 gallons, 2 eggs = 36 gallons/egg, and shockingly, one pound of beef = 1,500 gallons of water.
Why does so much water go into raising livestock? One odd (and disgusting) reason could be injecting animals with water to increase it's weight.
A global water shortage, in a world where 1 billion people already lack clean drinking water, is definitely bad news. Calculate your water consumption here.
2 comments:
I'm proud to be a vegetarian (now) :D
I'm proud to be a vegetarian (now) :D
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