Beef: Environment - Water Concerns
Fresh Water Use
Only 2.5 percent of the world’s water is fresh water. More than eight percent of the world’s fresh water is used by the livestock industry, which may not seem like a significant amount at first glance. However, the contaminants found in that eight percent represent the largest source of water pollution, some of the effects of which we addressed in the previous section concerning contamination. Animal waste, the presence of antibiotics and hormones, chemicals from tanneries, fertilizers and pesticides used on feed crops, and sediments from eroded pastures contribute to the degradation of our fresh water resources. In the U.S., livestock is responsible for 55 percent of erosion and sediment, and 33 percent of the nitrogen and phosphorus load in our waterways.1 This contamination has caused approximately 40 percent of U.S. fresh water to be considered unsafe for recreational use or consumption.2
Access to fresh water is inequitably distributed to the world’s population; more than four billion people live in water-stressed or water-scarce conditions, while another billion-plus do not have sufficient access to potable fresh water.3 Almost 50 percent of the worldwide population lacks adequate sanitation, leading to an estimated 12 million deaths each year--primarily infants and children. In developing nations, ninety percent of human infectious diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis are waterborne.4 Degradation of fresh water resources, as well as expanded deforestation and other land changes, by the livestock industry-- beef in particular--contribute to the pandemic nature of many of these diseases.
Furthermore, the production of grain-fed beef requires a significant amount of water—approximately 12,009 gallons of water are used to create one pound of beef (try multiplying that out by more than 104 million cows just in the U.S.). By comparison, soybeans require 240 gallons per pound, wheat,109 gallons, and potatoes, 60 gallons.5 From these statistics, a former co-op manager extrapolates:
"It takes approximately 200 times more water to produce one pound of beef than it does to produce one pound of potatoes. The United States Drug Administration has compared beef to potatoes based on calories. There are 1,197.5 calories in one pound of beef, and 288 calories in one pound of potatoes. This means that 4.15 pounds of potatoes provides an equal amount of calories as one pound of beef. It takes approximately 249 gallons of water to produce an equivalent number of potato-calories as 12,009 gallons of water takes to produce the same number of beef-calories. This means that it takes 50 times more water to produce one beef-calorie than it does to produce one potato-calorie."6
While the largest percentage of water consumed by the beef industry is to ensure that the cows are properly hydrated, the water is also used on the crops grown to feed to cows, to wash the cows while alive, to wash the carcasses at different stages in the slaughterhouses, to clean the feedhouses and slaughterhouses, in connection with the tanning process, and more. At every stage of water use in the beef industry, contamination of local waterways and croplands are a result.
The beef industry is expected to double its output by 20507, which will require at least 50 percent more water use. Given that the world’s water supply per person will continue to diminish at a rapid pace, and that 97 percent of the world’s population will live in water-stressed areas or in areas lacking potable water by 20238, limiting beef consumption in favor of less environmentally intensive foods would seem imperative.
Among its suggestions for increasing water use efficiency, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization strongly recommends adjusting beef cows’ diets to address the amount of water cows drink. A cow eating grass, for example, requires less drinking water than a cow eating feed, as the grass contains water within it while the feed is dehydrated and challenging to digest.9 Of course, the agency is quick to note that before adjusting diets, alternative food choices must be analyzed for their own climate impacts.
Learn about how the beef industry treats its employees.
Footnotes
1. Henning Steinfeld, Pierre Gerber, Tom Wassenaar, Vincent Castel, Mauricio Rosales, and Cees de Haan. Livestock’s Long Shadow. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Rome, 2006. 167
2. David Pimental and Marcia H. Pimental. Food, Energy, and Society. Boca Raton: CRC Press, 2008. 192
6. Jessi Gurr. “Vegetarianism is Obligatory.” Senior Thesis. University of Minnesota. Spring 2004.