Saving Water

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Recently, I saw a local newscast covering a group of animal rights activists protesting in the streets of the second largest city in Oregon. During an interview with the reporter, one activist alleged that to bring one steer from birth to slaughter, an equivalent amount of water is used by two adults taking a daily, 7-minute shower for six months. The activist also stated that 63% of all the water used in America is for producing food (I think she was saying that was for both farms and ranches, but I don't really know). I'm not sure, but I think she was encouraging everyone to stop eating beef because it was taxing the country's water supply.

Now, I've done the math for you. If one adult consumes 7 gallons of water to shower every day, then two adults use 14, so I guess a cow uses 14 gallons a day.

Based upon the figures she gave, and some of my own which I think are practical estimates, here is how much water an average adult consumes, not including other related water consumption like food, etc, per day,

One 7-minute shower (if you use the low-flow head which few do) is 7 gallons. Eight toilet flushes (if you use the newer 1.2 gallon flushers, and then quickly wash your hands) is 10 gallons. 1 gallon for laundry, 1 gallon for drinking, 1 gallon for laundry and food preparation. That totals 20 gallons per day, not including all the water we use to keep the lawns up, wash the car, and etc. And I kind of think this estimate is very low.

I am wrestling with a couple of things here. Since to stop eating beef would increase the demand for food that is grown, wouldn't that mean more water for the gardens? Would the extra water for that extra garden food be greater than the water used to raise the steak? If we ate more watermelon, would that reduce the amount of water the experts tell us to drink? If we ate more veggies, the fiber would cause us to poop more, therefore flushing the toilet more often. Or if we drank more milk instead of water, wouldn't that be a plus to keep raising cows?

What is true is that our water supply is short. Now it may increase when the polar caps melt, but that remains to be seen. I need help here, and I'm interested in what you think should be done. Please take the time to participate in the poll at the left. It will only be up for three days.

I'll analyze the results from the Thought Dock.
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