why is it a problem that it takes so much water to produce 1kg of beef – something like 15,000 liters – if the cows just pee it all back out anyway?

Question

why is it a problem that it takes so much water to produce 1kg of beef – something like 15,000 liters – if the cows just pee it all back out anyway?

In: 10104

Answer 1

The cow doesn’t pee out 15,000 liters of water per kg of cow. Most of that water goes into producing the feed for the cow. It takes 6 kg of grain to produce 1 kg of beef. That 6 kg of grain has more food value than 1 kg of beef, so there is a lot of food (and water) basically being wasted to produce beef, and a lot of fossil fuels required to farm the grain to feed the cows (not to mention greenhouse gases produced by the cows themselves). And there’s a lot of clearcutting of South American rainforests (a major greenhouse-gas absorber and source of oxygen on our planet) to make room for pasture to raise more beef cattle.

I know some vegetarians who aren’t vegetarian out of compassion to animals, they’re vegetarian because they view it as good for the environment. Me, I could live without beef or pork or chicken, but I would find it hard to go without fish.