When I was still in grad school, I used to work alongside Francis Moore Lappe, who was working on her classic book, Diet for a Small Planet. The beef water story was central.
On Sat, Mar 8, 2014 at 6:22 AM, Louis Proyect <[email protected]> wrote: > NY Times Op-Ed, Mar. 8 2014 > Meat Makes the Planet Thirsty > By JAMES MCWILLIAMS > > AUSTIN, Tex. -- CALIFORNIA is experiencing one of its worst droughts on > record. Just two and a half years ago, Folsom Lake, a major reservoir > outside Sacramento, was at 83 percent capacity. Today it's down to 36 > percent. In January, there was no measurable rain in downtown Los > Angeles. Gov. Jerry Brown has declared a state of emergency. President > Obama has pledged $183 million in emergency funding. The situation, > despite last week's deluge in Southern California, is dire. > > With California producing nearly half of the fruit and vegetables grown > in the United States, attention has naturally focused on the water > required to grow popular foods such as walnuts, broccoli, lettuce, > tomatoes, strawberries, almonds and grapes. These crops are the ones > that a recent report in the magazine Mother Jones highlighted as being > unexpectedly water intensive. Who knew, for example, that it took 5.4 > gallons to produce a head of broccoli, or 3.3 gallons to grow a single > tomato? This information about the water footprint of food products -- > that is, the amount of water required to produce them -- is important to > understand, especially for a state that dedicates about 80 percent of > its water to agriculture. > > But for those truly interested in lowering their water footprint, those > numbers pale next to the water required to fatten livestock. A 2012 > study in the journal Ecosystems by Mesfin M. Mekonnen and Arjen Y. > Hoekstra, both at the University of Twente in the Netherlands, tells an > important story. Beef turns out to have an overall water footprint of > roughly four million gallons per ton produced. By contrast, the water > footprint for "sugar crops" like sugar beets is about 52,000 gallons per > ton; for vegetables it's 85,000 gallons per ton; and for starchy roots > it's about 102,200 gallons per ton. > > Factor in the kind of water required to produce these foods, and the > water situation looks even worse for the future of animal agriculture in > drought-stricken regions that use what's known as "blue water," or water > stored in lakes, rivers and aquifers, which California and much of the > West depend on. > > Vegetables use about 11,300 gallons per ton of blue water; starchy > roots, about 4,200 gallons per ton; and fruit, about 38,800 gallons per > ton. By comparison, pork consumes 121,000 gallons of blue water per ton > of meat produced; beef, about 145,000 gallons per ton; and butter, some > 122,800 gallons per ton. There's a reason other than the drought that > Folsom Lake has dropped as precipitously as it has. Don't look at kale > as the culprit. (Although some nuts, namely almonds, consume > considerable blue water, even more than beef.) That said, a single plant > is leading California's water consumption. > > Unfortunately, it's a plant that's not generally cultivated for humans: > alfalfa. Grown on over a million acres in California, alfalfa sucks up > more water than any other crop in the state. And it has one primary > destination: cattle. Increasingly popular grass-fed beef operations > typically rely on alfalfa as a supplement to pasture grass. Alfalfa hay > is also an integral feed source for factory-farmed cows, especially > those involved in dairy production. > > If Californians were eating all the beef they produced, one might write > off alfalfa's water footprint as the cost of nurturing local food > systems. But that's not what's happening. Californians are sending their > alfalfa, and thus their water, to Asia. The reason is simple. It's more > profitable to ship alfalfa hay from California to China than from the > Imperial Valley to the Central Valley. Alfalfa growers are now exporting > some 100 billion gallons of water a year from this drought-ridden region > to the other side of the world in the form of alfalfa. All as more > Asians are embracing the American-style, meat-hungry diet. > > Further intensifying this ecological injustice are incidents such as the > Rancho Feeding Corporation's recent recall of 8.7 million pounds of beef > because the meat lacked a full federal inspection. That equals 631.6 > million gallons of water wasted by an industry with a far more complex > and resource-intensive supply chain than the systems that move > strawberries from farm to fork. > > This comparison isn't to suggest that produce isn't occasionally > recalled, but the Rancho incident reminds us that plants aren't > slaughtered, a process that demands 132 gallons of water per animal > carcass, contributing even more to livestock's expanding water footprint. > > It's understandable for concerned consumers to feel helpless in the face > of these complex industrial and global realities. But in the case of > agriculture and drought, there's a clear and accessible action most > citizens can take: reducing or, ideally, eliminating the consumption of > animal products. Changing one's diet to replace 50 percent of animal > products with edible plants like legumes, nuts and tubers results in a > 30 percent reduction in an individual's food-related water footprint. > Going vegetarian, a better option in many respects, reduces that water > footprint by almost 60 percent. > > It's seductive to think that we can continue along our carnivorous > route, even in this era of climate instability. The environmental impact > of cattle in California, however, reminds us how mistaken this idea is > coming to seem. > > James McWilliams is a professor of history at Texas State University and > the author, most recently, of "The Politics of the Pasture: How Two > Cattle Inspired a National Debate About Eating Animals ." > > --- > > NY Times, Mar. 8 2014 > In Parched California, Town Taps Run Nearly Dry > By ADAM NAGOURNEY > > LAKE OF THE WOODS, Calif. -- People in this mountain town straddling the > San Andreas Fault are used to scrapping for water. The lake for which it > is named went dry 40 years ago. But now, this tiny community is dealing > with its most unsettling threat yet: It could run out of water by summer. > > As of last week, just two of the five wells drilled into the dry lake > bed that serve its 300 homes were producing water. The mountains of the > nearby Los Padres National Forest got their first dusting of snow -- and > it was a light one -- last week; it is the winter snow that feeds the > wells come spring. People are watering trees with discarded dishwater, > running the washing machine once a week, and letting their carefully > tended beds of flowers and trees wither into patches of dusty dirt. > > There are scenes all across California that illustrate the power of the > drought. A haze of smog, which normally would be washed away by winter > rains, hung over Los Angeles this week. Beekeepers near Sacramento said > the lack of wildflowers has deprived bees of a source of food, > contributing to a worrisome die-off. Across the rich farmland of the San > Joaquin Valley, fields are going unplanted. > > But for 17 small rural communities in California, the absence of rain is > posing a fundamental threat to the most basic of services: drinking > water. And Lake of the Woods, a middle-class enclave 80 miles from > downtown Los Angeles, a mix of commuters, retirees and weekend > residents, is one of the most seriously threatened. Signs along its > dusty roadways offer stark red-on-white warnings of a "Water Emergency" > and plead for conservation. > > "I didn't think it would come to this," said Diane Gustafson, the > manager of the Lake of the Woods Mutual Water Company, as she greeted a > team of county and state officials reviewing the community's request for > emergency funds to drill more holes. "Our wells are so deep. I have > lived here for 40 years, and this is the first time we've had a problem > like this." > > So far, nothing has seemed to have helped: not the yearlong ban on > watering lawns and washing cars, not the conscientious homeowners who > clean their dishes in the sink and reuse the gray water on trees, not > even the three inches of rain that soaked the area last weekend. Three > attempts to drill new wells, going down 500 feet, have failed. > > For a while, Lake of the Woods bought water from Frazier Park, five > miles up the road, but that community halted sales as its water table > dropped through the winter. Now Lake of the Woods is trying to line up > alternatives, and fast: State officials predict the existing water > supply will last no more than three months. > > The town, which covers an unincorporated square mile of Kern County and > has a population of about 900, says it is prepared to truck in water > should the wells run dry, an expensive remedy that it employed briefly > during a dry spell last year and that now looms as a potential fact of > life here. Bob Stowell, a general contractor who is the unpaid chairman > of the board of the water company, promises that no faucets in Lake of > the Woods will go dry. > > But that assurance is being met with skepticism from residents who, with > every dry passing day, have grown uneasy at the prospect of running out > of water for drinking or, no less alarming, to fight what many see as > the inevitable forest fires on the way. > > "I am very worried," said Craig Raiche, 43, who works at the local > hardware store, as he tended the dry brown dirt of his front yard here. > "We understand what we are in the middle of. People have been cutting > back considerably. I don't see neighbors gardening anymore. I had a > neighbor with flowers in front of her home -- she let them all go." > > Kathy Hamm, 50, who works at the general store on the old lake, said > that last year was bad "but not like this." > > "It's been getting worse and worse," she said. "People aren't watering > their lawns. Laundry one day a week. Doing dishes in the sink instead of > using the dishwasher." > > The developments here offer a window into the anxieties and battles that > may be ahead for many parts of this drought-stricken region should rain > not return. Ms. Gustafson said the owners of summer homes threatened not > to pay their water bills after they were told they could not water their > lawns; she has responded by vowing to cut off their water. > > For Mr. Stowell, the once-modest obligations of running the water > company have become time-consuming. He spends much of his day dealing > with homeowners anxious about what the next season will bring, and > scolding the occasional water scofflaws who resist the conservation > directives. > > "Hey, Bob, did that guy Cliff call you?" Rafael Molina Jr., who oversees > the daily operations of this and neighboring water systems, said to Mr. > Stowell. "He wants to snitch on one of his neighbors who is taking water." > > Mr. Stowell said most people were pitching in, but added: "There's > always the people who are driving around, calling in, saying, 'My > neighbor's doing this, my neighbor's doing that, and he's out there > washing his car now. The water is running down the street, and he's got > green grass.'" > > He said he had a simple message for any such offender: "I'm sure you'd > rather take your shower than water your lawn." > > The isolated beauty of this community accounts, in large part, for why > it is so hard to find water. Lake of the Woods is on the edge of Los > Padres National Forest, all of it off-limits for exploratory drilling. > It is 5,500 feet up in the mountains, resting on granite. > > "It's different in the San Joaquin Valley: You can drill and find > water," said David A. Warner, a senior community development specialist > with Self-Help Enterprises, a nonprofit group that has been working with > homeowners during the drought. "Up here in the mountains, it's much > harder. They've tried, they've really tried." > > This community lies atop on a nest of earthquake faults, anchored by the > San Andreas Fault. That may not be entirely a bad thing; geologists have > told water company officials that the best place to look for water this > high in the mountains is where fault lines meet. > > Mr. Warner said the situation was made worse because so many communities > face similar challenges, and are responding by digging new wells. "The > problem for them is there are only so many well drillers," he said. > "Farmers need water. Cities need waters. Everybody is lining up for a > driller. We had a bid for test wells, and the driller said he won't be > able to be out there until April." > > And as the drought has shown no sign of easing, the water company, with > emergency financial assistance from California, has intensified its > efforts to find new water sources: buying land, opening up closed wells > and drilling ever deeper. > > "We did drill three test holes, and we found nothing," Mr. Stowell said. > "Went down, three, four, five hundred feet. And we didn't find anything. > Now we're going to go down more, 1,000 feet." > > "We'll keep drilling until we find water," Mr. Stowell said as he > trudged past a closed well, marked by a white cap. "We have three new > test locations. We're going to attempt to drill down and see if we can > find more water. I suspect we will eventually find water." > > The situation has left people here confronting the kind of questions > they say people who live in urban areas have never had to consider. > "Where are you going to get your water from?" said Greg Gustafson, Ms. > Gustafson's son. "How can you flush your toilets? How can you take a > shower? How can brush your teeth in the morning? It's not a nice feeling > knowing that your town could be completely turned into a ghost town > because they don't have a water supply." > > Sean Patrick Farrell contributed reporting. > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l > -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 530 898 5321 fax 530 898 5901 http://michaelperelman.wordpress.com
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