"While a small share of the Colorado River water is used on farms to grow fruits and vegetables, like lettuce, oranges, and grapes, almost half of it — by far the lion’s share — is used to grow just alfalfa and other types of hay, virtually all of which is used to feed beef and dairy cattle.
"All told, animal feed accounts for at least 47 percent of all water pulled from the Colorado River — yet the imprudence of devoting so much water to one industry receives little to no attention in public discussion over the West’s water crisis.
"What’s more, the millions of cows in the American West are themselves fueling climate change in a non-insignificant way with their methane-rich burps, which in turn accelerates the water shortages for the river.
"And these crops provide little economic activity to the region. For example, almost 70 percent of all of Utah’s water is used to grow alfalfa, though it represents just 0.2 percent of the state’s GDP."
I had no idea that so much of the river's water was devoted solely to animal feed.
Modern cattle ranching is a massive environmental disaster in itself. No field rotation, massive supplementation with unhealthy substitutes, and oversized herds. Terrible for the animals, terrible for the land, but fantastic for profits.
The only reason it's so profitable is because it's so subsidized. If they had to pay the actual cost to the earth of what they are doing we'd eat a lot less beef because it would be expensive
I recall reading that it is related to grandfathered water rights that require farms to use the water they are allotted, which was from when no one thought much about how much to allot. Alfalfa uses a lot of water, so it is a good crop to grow if you are trying to use as much as possible to keep your water rights so you can have access to more water later to, presumably, grow more alfalfa?
WOW WOW WOWEE! I had no idea and I thought I was relatively well informed on water in the SW. The fucking cows are killing us! They will ruin the entire economy and housing market. I’m betting the alfalfa farmers are very well connected and have made large donations to politics.
I live in Las Vegas and every year Lake Mead gets a little lower. Soon the Hoover Dam won’t be able to generate power. And we can only water our plants once a week. And our yards are desert landscaping. And I’m a fucking vegan and don’t eat beef anyway.
Society runs on a massive, commercialized food complex. Until you personally start raising chickens in your back yard and grow crops, you're not trying to be self sustaining. And if you're not doing that, you're relying on this infrastructure and every layer of it all the way down, including water consumption. At the end of the day, we are all the consumers driving this. Every time we pull out our wallet and pay for something, we have made a decision to support some giant infrastructure of stuff and companies that we may or may not like.
If people actually looked into a) how repulsive the raising and processing of most animals/animal products is and b) how damaging it is to the environment, and then consider that it’s not even necessary for survival, it’s literally just for pleasure. Then, c) consider that most preventable chronic illnesses can be linked to increased consumption of many of the most popular animal products.
With today’s technology and some determination, we could pretty easily allow nature to rebound and destruction ease if we simply gave up meat (even just most) of the time.
I don't kid myself, but I'll still happily eat beef, chicken, etc. To me the process is a necessary evil, but I do recommend however is supporting local small farmers as there are often more around than you think. This can never sustain a nation, but you personally can pick how you'd like to source your food.
You have made a number of really articulate points even if people don’t want to hear them. Reality rarely has two bleeps to give regarding what people want to hear.
And it’s not just crops that need water - people do too. there are counties in Arizona, where suburbs are being built and the aquifer below them is dry. Trucking in water, even if people can afford it, is not very sustainable. That water has to come from somewhere.
Expecting water to come out of a tap just because you turned it on is about as sensible as saying “What do you mean I’m broke. I still have credit cards.”
And since I’m on a roll, don’t get me started on AI centers being built on wetlands.
Lol, you haven't done the math to see what self-sustaining looks like. The contemporary American suburb would never reach self-sustainability by virtue of land required alone.
True, the living standards we often like are significantly subsidized. Most people don't want what's profitable and often can't afford what's wanted. Suburbs are notoriously inefficient for city infrastructure, but...it's what many want. And then taxation just kind of has to make it work.
Americans do not have the organization to create the necessary infrastructure for the kind of idealist anarchocommunist pipe dream everyone, including myself, talks about in these threads.
And it's also lame as fuck to say that "we're the reason" for all of this - no, the system was built this way by people with bad intentions, and their bad intentioned heirs have continued to make it near impossible for individuals and small groups to take any sort of community-building action without either massive personal risk or undue financial strain.
You wanna dream about a forest? You better understand what it takes a grow a tree.
This problem is compounded by allowing foreign companies to set up and also take advantage of the lax water laws. Look at Saudi alfalfa farms in Arizona, that are subject to little regulation.
[OP] SlapDashUser | 5 hours ago
Submission Statement: Answer: it's the cows.
"While a small share of the Colorado River water is used on farms to grow fruits and vegetables, like lettuce, oranges, and grapes, almost half of it — by far the lion’s share — is used to grow just alfalfa and other types of hay, virtually all of which is used to feed beef and dairy cattle.
"All told, animal feed accounts for at least 47 percent of all water pulled from the Colorado River — yet the imprudence of devoting so much water to one industry receives little to no attention in public discussion over the West’s water crisis.
"What’s more, the millions of cows in the American West are themselves fueling climate change in a non-insignificant way with their methane-rich burps, which in turn accelerates the water shortages for the river.
"And these crops provide little economic activity to the region. For example, almost 70 percent of all of Utah’s water is used to grow alfalfa, though it represents just 0.2 percent of the state’s GDP."
I had no idea that so much of the river's water was devoted solely to animal feed.
rogue_ger | 3 hours ago
Modern cattle ranching is a massive environmental disaster in itself. No field rotation, massive supplementation with unhealthy substitutes, and oversized herds. Terrible for the animals, terrible for the land, but fantastic for profits.
reefsofmist | 2 hours ago
The only reason it's so profitable is because it's so subsidized. If they had to pay the actual cost to the earth of what they are doing we'd eat a lot less beef because it would be expensive
iamthe0ther0ne | 2 hours ago
Most people have no idea the scale of animals being used for food. 10 billion in the EU last year.
Duckbilling2 | 5 hours ago
quite a bit is also used to grow cotton in Arizona
though I am not sure what percentage total that is
but to me it was surprising
as it isn't even food.
horseradishstalker | 4 hours ago
Other than the water issue, Arizona has a climate that’s actually really good for growing cotton.
Duckbilling2 | 4 hours ago
It uses s medium-amount of water, at least compared to alfalfa as well.
Duckbilling2 | 4 hours ago
Oh I believe it.
amber90 | 4 hours ago
That cotton is at least useful. If people just ate a normal amount of beef, there’d be no need for these millions of acres of alfalfa.
Duckbilling2 | 4 hours ago
For some reason I thought the Arizona Alfalfa was being grown for the Saudis and flown over there
poco | 5 hours ago
I recall reading that it is related to grandfathered water rights that require farms to use the water they are allotted, which was from when no one thought much about how much to allot. Alfalfa uses a lot of water, so it is a good crop to grow if you are trying to use as much as possible to keep your water rights so you can have access to more water later to, presumably, grow more alfalfa?
Wellslapmesilly | 3 hours ago
And where is the alfalfa going? Mainly to Saudi Arabia and the UAE. It doesn’t even benefit Americans.
Loggerdon | 9 minutes ago
WOW WOW WOWEE! I had no idea and I thought I was relatively well informed on water in the SW. The fucking cows are killing us! They will ruin the entire economy and housing market. I’m betting the alfalfa farmers are very well connected and have made large donations to politics.
I live in Las Vegas and every year Lake Mead gets a little lower. Soon the Hoover Dam won’t be able to generate power. And we can only water our plants once a week. And our yards are desert landscaping. And I’m a fucking vegan and don’t eat beef anyway.
mvw2 | 5 hours ago
Society runs on a massive, commercialized food complex. Until you personally start raising chickens in your back yard and grow crops, you're not trying to be self sustaining. And if you're not doing that, you're relying on this infrastructure and every layer of it all the way down, including water consumption. At the end of the day, we are all the consumers driving this. Every time we pull out our wallet and pay for something, we have made a decision to support some giant infrastructure of stuff and companies that we may or may not like.
BonusPlantInfinity | 3 hours ago
If people actually looked into a) how repulsive the raising and processing of most animals/animal products is and b) how damaging it is to the environment, and then consider that it’s not even necessary for survival, it’s literally just for pleasure. Then, c) consider that most preventable chronic illnesses can be linked to increased consumption of many of the most popular animal products.
With today’s technology and some determination, we could pretty easily allow nature to rebound and destruction ease if we simply gave up meat (even just most) of the time.
mvw2 | 3 hours ago
I don't kid myself, but I'll still happily eat beef, chicken, etc. To me the process is a necessary evil, but I do recommend however is supporting local small farmers as there are often more around than you think. This can never sustain a nation, but you personally can pick how you'd like to source your food.
[OP] SlapDashUser | 5 hours ago
And I think we're all going to have to come to terms with the impact on the environment of what we eat.
horseradishstalker | 4 hours ago
You have made a number of really articulate points even if people don’t want to hear them. Reality rarely has two bleeps to give regarding what people want to hear.
And it’s not just crops that need water - people do too. there are counties in Arizona, where suburbs are being built and the aquifer below them is dry. Trucking in water, even if people can afford it, is not very sustainable. That water has to come from somewhere. Expecting water to come out of a tap just because you turned it on is about as sensible as saying “What do you mean I’m broke. I still have credit cards.”
And since I’m on a roll, don’t get me started on AI centers being built on wetlands.
amber90 | 4 hours ago
I just don’t eat beef except maybe once/week and if everyone else did that, this wouldn’t be a problem.
Pabst_Blue_Gibbon | 2 hours ago
you could just not eat beef. I probably eat beef around 1-2x a year and I just don't miss it.
reefsofmist | 2 hours ago
We should end the subsidies for beef so that everyone is forced to stop supporting it
gravitonbomb | 5 hours ago
Lol, you haven't done the math to see what self-sustaining looks like. The contemporary American suburb would never reach self-sustainability by virtue of land required alone.
mvw2 | 4 hours ago
True, the living standards we often like are significantly subsidized. Most people don't want what's profitable and often can't afford what's wanted. Suburbs are notoriously inefficient for city infrastructure, but...it's what many want. And then taxation just kind of has to make it work.
KillerElbow | 4 hours ago
You're missing the forest for a tree
gravitonbomb | 4 hours ago
The forest isn't there.
Americans do not have the organization to create the necessary infrastructure for the kind of idealist anarchocommunist pipe dream everyone, including myself, talks about in these threads.
And it's also lame as fuck to say that "we're the reason" for all of this - no, the system was built this way by people with bad intentions, and their bad intentioned heirs have continued to make it near impossible for individuals and small groups to take any sort of community-building action without either massive personal risk or undue financial strain.
You wanna dream about a forest? You better understand what it takes a grow a tree.
KillerElbow | 2 hours ago
Lololol, you completely misunderstood my point. You're kinda right tho
vicegrip | 5 hours ago
Paywalled article. Unfortunately I could not read it.
[OP] SlapDashUser | 5 hours ago
If you use reader mode, or many other methods, you will be able to.
raendrop | 21 minutes ago
I just tried reader mode. It didn't work at all. Not sure what other methods you're referring to.
horseradishstalker | 4 hours ago
Or if you could just throw on an archive link.
JustJustinInTime | 4 hours ago
This problem is compounded by allowing foreign companies to set up and also take advantage of the lax water laws. Look at Saudi alfalfa farms in Arizona, that are subject to little regulation.
LongjumpingEase8728 | 4 hours ago
yeah true, but using all that water for non-food crps seems kinda wild tbh
Euphoric_Anxiety_162 | 2 hours ago
Tech requires a LOT of water for power. Look into that possibility.
greenalias | 33 minutes ago
Bottled water, watering feed crops, watering lawns, etc. wasting water in general. Not collecting and filtering rainwater due "water rights". On & on.
myrtled0odle4713 | 3 hours ago
idk yeah it's wild how much damage it does. going meatless even a few days a week can make a difference tbh