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1,800 Gallons of Water Goes Into One Pound of Meat

Photo via Wikimedia Commons

Cut down on your water footprint without starving yourself at dinnertime. You have already wasted hundreds of gallons of water today, and you probably don’t even realize it. Where is all this invisible water going, you ask? The answer is simple: our food. You will never see the majority of water you consume in your lifetime, and this is because food comprises ⅔ of the average American’s water footprint.

Nothing that lands on your dinner plate gets there without the use of water: crops can’t flourish without water; the grain we feed our livestock needs water to grow; and even the most processed, artificial foods utilize water during the manufacturing process. In fact, the agriculture industry is responsible for approximately 80% of the water used in the U.S. So—how to cut down on your water footprint without starving yourself? It’s important to realize that when it comes to water, not all foods are created equal. In general, meat has a much larger water footprint than fruits, vegetables and grains. This is because of the massive amounts of virtual water that go into creating food for livestock. Beef— which is the second most popular meat […]

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