Is Your Diet Draining California’s Water Supply?

What about California’s Water Supply?

Lately we’ve been bombarded with news of hurricanes, droughts, disease, and other natural disasters. The California Drought has been a major cause of concern for all of America. As we watch this spiral out of control, many of us have never considered the possibility that we could directly do something about this. Even more far fetched, what if our diets actually have a huge affect on the water supply around us?

America’s obsession with unhealthy food is no secret.

Portion sizes are disregarded; we do not hesitate to fill our bodies with over-processed, over-salted, and artificial foods. Just to get each person to be more health conscious and to actively seek a healthy lifestyle would greatly increase the health in our nation. But what if it not only increased the health of the citizens, but also the health of the environment?

With this in mind, let’s go back to the California Drought.

It turns out that American’s are guzzling water, but not to stay hydrated or to take showers. This water comes in the form of hamburgers, steaks, fast food and countless other unhealthy options. Many of us don’t consider that the food we eat must be processed with water, meaning our health choices directly affect national water consumption.

The numbers are shocking.

80% of ALL of the water used in California goes towards agriculture, and 50% of all the water is specifically used by the dairy and meat industries. That means there is 30% left over for producing grains and vegetables, and the last 20% is used for every thing else – from watering your lawn, to taking showers, or drinking water. This number gives us a pretty clear picture that the meat and dairy industries alone are draining the country, literally.

What do we have to do with this?

A lot, actually. Clearly we all have to eat, but what we choose to eat can directly hurt or help the water consumption in California, as well as the rest of the nation. Whether you are vegan, vegetarian, pescetarian or carnivorous, you are either helping or hurting the environment. A vegan or vegetarian lifestyle can significant drop the numbers of water consumption. A carnivorous lifestyle requires 4,000 gallons of water daily – that is no trifling number. In contrast, a vegan diet requires 300 gallons of water daily, meaning that each vegan alone saves 3,700 gallons of water every single day.

To break this down even more, consider this.

Each pound of meat takes 1,915 gallons to produce; this includes the grain used to feed the animal, and the processing to turn the animal into a food product. This is just as wasteful as it is distasteful. This water would be better used to directly grow grains or vegetables. For example, in contrast to the 1,915 gallons to produce 1 pound of meat, it takes 102 gallons to produce the equal amount of wheat. Now let me ask you, would this pound of wheat go further if we were to feed it to a cow, or directly to the consumer? That’s a no brainer. The most direct and least wasteful way to solve world hunger and eliminate water waste is to eliminate or lessen meat consumption.

Did you know that every time you avoid eating a regular hamburger from your favorite burger joint, you save 635 gallons of water?

This saves more water than if you were to skip taking showers for 6 months. I don’t know about you, but I would much rather skip a hamburger and choose a healthier option than skip showering for 6 months.

These are just a few numbers of many to support that a vegan lifestyle is not only healthier, but also less wasteful and more beneficial for the environment. So please, reconsider the next time you are tempted to think that your decisions don’t make a difference. Your choice matters, and so does our earth.

Kim’s Simple Meals is committed to not only bettering the health of the individual, but also the health of our environment.

We believe that an impact can be made through simple lifestyle choices, like what you eat. This doesn’t mean sacrificing taste, it means finding tasty and satisfying healthy alternatives to keep our bodies and our planet in top shape!