I put this in IMHO because I’m not sure it has a direct answer.
I see posted, usually on Facebook how we should think before we eat (certain item)
Because it takes 40 gallons of water (making up number) to make a single pound of beef!
How significant are these numbers, assuming they are real?
I’m not questioning whether it actually takes that much water to make anything we grow, but at the same time does it really matter?
I mean, it’s not like those 40 gallons disappeared from the planet. Just were turned into something non-water, and presumably will become water again at some point.
Is it fear mongering, or is this something to actually worry about.
I think it does matter, at least to some extent. Especially in places where water is scares it is a question what to do with the fresh water we have. If it takes 10 gallons to grow a peach or 100 gallons to grow an almond giving people that information can help make a decision about if that’s where they want their water going.
I remember a couple of years ago being “asked” to curtail my water usage by not washing my car or watering my law only two days per week and then discovering that farmers not only pay less for their water but use like 10x what all residential consumers were using. An easier way to accomplish this is having water not be subsidized for industrial and agricultural so that the price you pay is reflective of true costs but in the mean time knowing how water intensive some operations are can give you the knowledge to avoid them.
Of course the other end of that is that there are so many things that you are supposed to care about potatable water usage can’t rank for everyone. I know a supposedly green distillery that uses solar power and composts all of their waste but then dumps 100,000 gallons of potable water per month rather that use dirty carbon energy to cool their facility.
I know you’re trying to be funny, but come on. First you’re ignoring the water used in growing the tea. Then there’s the water used in cleaning the tea pot. Etc.
I’ve always wondered about rice. This article says that rice uses an average of 4-5,000 litres of water per kilo of grain produced. Think about that 4- 5,000 litres. The article goes on to mention SRI (System of Rice Intensification) that can save up to up to 1/3 of water needed for rice cultivation
Again, think about that - cubic kilometres of water…
And this doesn’t even touch on the water needed to rinse or cook the rice…
I guess it depends on how much water you have available locally. In Australia, there is not enough water to go around a lot of the time, so it’s worth thinking about what’s the best way to use what we have.
There are places that have plenty of water and places that have limited water. All my life I have lived in places where there are water issues, as in, my mother used to say that out here (this was southern California) we could not spend water like money.
So I do sometimes pay attention, for instance “it takes X amount of water to produce this t-shirt” but on the whole I’m pretty sure my carbon footprint is small compared to most Americans and I gotta have a couple of t-shirts.
But what I wonder is, who decided “Hey, let’s put all this water through a conditioning process, where the result is clean, potable water. And then, let’s put it in the toilets!”
I’m not saying I don’t love the convenience of water with my indoor plumbing. But really, I’m not even sure I need this treated, potable water for my shower, let alone to shit in, particularly when there are hordes of people in the world who don’t have clean water for drinking.
It depends on how abundant water is where the product is made, and it also depends what form the water is in, and hence what other uses it could be put to. If the water for your beef comes from grass, and the water in the grass comes from rain, and you can’t do anything else with the rain, then maybe turning it into beef really is the most efficient way to use that water.
To grow one almond requires 1.1 gallons of water, and to grow a pound takes 1,900 gal.
As stated, the climate the crop is grown is where the potential issue lies. Here in CA, it is a primarily dry, warm climate, which suits almonds very well. And in recent years demand has been up, so land that supported other crops, like cotton, has been converted to almonds. More land for thirsty almond trees on an already over-taxed water system means there will be conflicts. Almond farmers are complaining they are not getting enough water.
I would tend to agree with them except for a couple things: 1) expansion of almonds in an already dry climate with water shortages is not a good investment - they assume someone will find them water because, well, because!, and 2) a large portion of the almond crop is exported and not turned into food for American taxpayers - so we end up funding their dam and water diversion projects while they profit. Public costs and private benefits.
What if an almond orchard was replaced by trees that don’t produce any crop (at least any directly useful to people)? What would the water consumption be then? Isn’t a good part of the water consumption just necessary for a large plant, like a tree?
One major aspect is that, in most case, water is not used up in these processes. Sure, you used that much water. Now how much of that water is able to be released back into the environment, or cleaned up again and reused as potable water?
With carbon usage, we talk about net carbon. Should we not also talk about net water usage, rather than just using these large numbers when most of it is reclaimable? Shouldn’t we be talking about the procedures to reclaim water, including the very real possibility of just letting it evaporate back into the water cycle?
Pasture fed cattle often have their food supplemented by hay, and are finished up eating grain to fatten up, so you have to count the water for that too.
Maybe that area wouldn’t naturally grow trees, or would grow trees that use less water.
Rain falling on farmland, and excess irrigation returning to the river, picks up a nutrient load moving through the soil, which can cause algal blooms and other problems. But even if the water isn’t gone for good, the same water can only support one crop (or process) at a time.
Water is one of those things that people are used to thinking of as an unlimited resource. Turns out that with the scale that we now do things on, it isn’t unlimited, and we do have to think about how to manage it. At least in my part of the world. It’s been huge issue in Australia for a while now.
I think a bunch of you are looking at this the wrong way. I mean, does that water leave the Earth? No. But, have we made considerable effort to gather, clean and distribute that water? You bet we have. And then we make decisions on how to use that carefully gathered resource. Some decisions make great use of that water and some decisions waste that water. Making decisions that ‘waste’ less of that water seem like a good idea, no? And the numbers that credit rice or almonds or whatever with the use of a specific volume of water should be taken with a grain of salt. Those are aggregate estimates and can vary wildly depending on circumstances. Again, choosing different methods of watering and different products to water can make very positive impacts on how our clean water is utilized.
Energy isn’t a bad analogy. We gather energy in many different forms (gas, solar, wind, diesel, etc.) and then we make decisions on how to use it. The energy still exists in the universe, but in a much less useful form after we’ve run it through an engine, listened to a stereo or whatever.
Here’s the thing though- a lot of that water rationing stuff is extremely dependent on your local water utility/authority and their access to water.
For example, I live in Dallas. We’ve never really had serious water rationing in the 12 years I’ve lived here, while Collin County (just north of Dallas) seems to have had water rationing nearly every summer since 2001. Why? Because they drew/draw their water from a single lake, and Dallas draws theirs from five or six, with more in the planning phases. The price and any water restrictions (or not) that result from that is independent of the agricultural use of water by farmers- they don’t buy it from the water utilities in most cases. Farmers generally have water rights to wells or surface water from lakes, rivers or other bodies of water that they use to irrigate with.