4 ms·
Californian livestock (including cattle, chickens, etc.) uses approximately 9% of the nation's 2.14 billion gallon/day water on all livestock.[1] This equates t
by sb057 12y ago
Californian livestock (including cattle, chickens, etc.) uses approximately 9% of the nation's 2.14 billion gallon/day water on all livestock.[1] This equates to roughly 73 billion gallons per year. The report is a decade old, so I'll round that up to 100 billions of gallons used, per year, on meat products in California.
California almond farmers use 1.1 trillions of gallons per year.[2]
So yes, if anyone is to blame, it is definitely the almond farmers, as they use more than 10 times the amount of water than all meat farmers combined.
[1] https://water.usgs.gov/edu/wulv.html https://water.usgs.gov/edu/wulv.html
[2] http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-30052290 http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-30052290
- pavpanchekha 12y agoSomething about the numbers seems fishy. According to the source in the OP, California spends 47% of water on livestock and 9% on almonds. Perhaps you are counting only water that livestock drink, whereas the original was including the agricultural water for feed.
- aplusbi 12y agoYour numbers don't add up. Rounding up to 3 billion gallons/day comes out to just under 1.1 trillion gallons per year. I know you pulled those numbers directly from the links you provided, but clearly one (or both) of them is erronous.
- cheald 12y agoI suspect the discrepancy is that the article is likely including the crops (such as alfalfa) grown to feed the cow in the water usage footprint, as well, which I don't think your first link does.