Bessie Says: “Save Water”
How to Help in a Drought - Stop Eating Beef
by Sheridan Miller
  
        We, in the state of California are in a drought. This is an irrefutable fact. yet many people seem to be ignoring this reality. America is a land where nothing ever seems to be in short supply. Food is accessible twenty-four hours a day, and can usually be found minutes from a persons house. Water is even more prevalent; all we have to do is turn on a faucet and we have found a seemingly endless supply. Thus, when we as Americans look to our water availability and compare it to many third world countries, we take the availability of our water for granted.

As a country, we are headed towards a time of great water depletion and drought, unparalleled for more than 1,000 years. According to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, this drought in which we find ourselves in the worst in 1,200 years. California in particular, due to its unsustainable agricultural industry is slowly creeping towards another dust bowl. The state and federal government inform people that in order to avoid such a tragedy we should do small things, like shorten our showers, and stop watering the lawn. While both are good suggestions, and will help in this water crisis in which we find ourselves, these solutions pale in comparison to cutting back on meat consumption.This suggestion may be laughed off by citizens who value their freedom to choose, freedom to speak, freedom to protest, and freedom to barbeque, but it is the only solution that will actually have an impact on the worst drought in 10 centuries. It is arrogant to assume, that once this epiphany reaches American citizens they will all change their eating habits, but I ask you to ponder a simple question: is your carnivorous lifestyle really worth your posterity’s access to clean drinking water?
            People tend to procrastinate fixing the things that scare them; this is why parents are still rallying behind the disposal of evolution being taught in schools, and why some people still scoff when climate change arises in a conversation. Californians read about the true emergency state which they are in, but tend to forget about it when they are drawing their next bath. We, as Californian’s, as American’s, as people, don’t want to believe that our basic amenities will be taken away because of an emergent circumstance. We leave it to our neighbor to take a shorter shower and drive a hybrid. Human beings have inhabited the earth for as little as 200,000 years, a millisecond in our great planet’s history; and yet we have done the most damage by far. At the rate we are going, we will be the species who will have inhabited Earth the shortest amount of time. We won’t have a future if we don’t venture out past our aversion to the truth, and if we don’t start changing our ways.
A bath uses about 40 gallons of water. A shower uses about 10 gallons, and sprinklers use 140 gallons of pure, fresh, drinkable water. All these statistics seem relatively high, until you look at how much water agriculture is using. Animal agriculture’s water usage ranges from 34-76 trillions gallons of water annually, and is responsible for 80-90% of US water consumption. 80-90%... consider that and imagine how different our quickly diminishing water would be replenished if everyone in America developed an appetite for vegetables. Growing feed for livestock consumes 56% of water in America. And remember how the government told you to stop wasting 40 gallons of water on a bath? Have you ever seen a sticker on a pack of meat with a friendly note from the government asking you to kindly not waste the 2,500 gallons of water which are needed to produce 1 lb of beef? Or do the workers at McDonalds ever remind you that one hamburger requires 660 gallons of water to produce? This seems a bit more drastic than your five minute shower now doesn’t it?

Today, 80 countries worldwide have water shortages, America being one of them. Two sevenths of the world’s population don’t have access to clean water. To many, these statistics are just that; statistics. They apply to other countries and could never reach the United States. Fun fact: California has broken two records this year, not only have we had the driest January, but also the hottest February, ever. This drought is real, and its happening all around us. It is not merely cyclical, as meteorologists predict several more rainless years in our about to be much more golden state. Soon, clean water is going to become just as valuable as oil, and we all know what happens when a resource is coveted between nations. I have good news and I have bad news, I’ll start with the bad. This water crisis is not going to disappear because we will it to do so, we have to band together and make a conscious effort to help solve it. The good news is that there is an easy way, we have to stop seeing cattle as our next meal.

Not only does animal agriculture have an affect on the quantity of our water supply, but it also affects the quality of that supply. America reaps most of its drinkable water from reservoirs and aquifers; non renewable water sources, which, when polluted take ten-fifteen years to become viable drinking sources again. Agriculture is heavily impactful in water pollution. The nitrate runoff from pesticides used on crops is very dangerous to the outside environment, and has been linked to habitat destruction, wildlife death and mutations, and even some miscarriages in humans. Animal feces are also highly destructive to nearby ecosystems, due to their high levels of methane. In the US alone, 40% of the rivers, and lakes are too polluted to support normal activity.

The government refuses to speak about the impact of agriculture on California’s drought because they are too heavily invested in the major corporations which need meat to do business. But we, as citizens, with our freedom and our right to choose, can decide to continue living on this planet. We can decide to live in a world with lush foliage, and green mountains, and running water. We can decide to give our children a future that doesn’t consist of global warfare, and dehydration, and water pollution. We just need to get over our obstinance. I don’t suggest abandoning Bessie, and the meat she provides entirely, as, again this would be an arrogant request. Rather, cut back on your meat consumption. Elect to have a few vegetarian or even vegan nights a week. Make meat a treat, rather than a staple. Do your part, save our world, eat fewer burgers.