It seems that the majority of the water consumed by the beef industry would be “used” when it falls from the sky on to the soil which then grows a plant that a cow eats.
While I don’t think this argument, er, holds water for other reasons, it is worth noting that a lot of cattle feed comes from irrigated crops which are grown in areas where they are draining water from underground aquifers and overdrawn rivers faster than they’re being replenished. This video, for example, though it is not wholly about this topic, discusses the common cattle feed of alfalfa, which is a water heavy crop grown widely in the Colorado river basin.
I genuinely don’t know how much US beef is fed alfalfa grown with water drawn from rivers.
My intention with the following is not to throw any shade on the US, but I just don’t know what the farming practices are elsewhere in the world.
In my state, there are no “feed lots” and cattle exclusively graze in paddocks. Their feed is supplemented with silage and hay but none of which is irrigated, even from a local on-property dam. That is to say that the entirety is their feed is grown with direct rainfall.
I’m just pointing out that while some water inputs may be from rivers, it’s not the entirety and I doubt it’s the majority.
Also, assuming we trust these numbers: what are these values “per capita”? The beef industry is absolutely massive and AI data centers are new. How many cows/cow farms are dividing that number? How many compute farms/data centers for the others?
It’s like saying we should be able to leave babies in the swamps with gators because the numbers show gators kill less babies than humans. Neglecting the fact that humans and gators don’t have equal hands-on time with human babies.
I don’t think this is a reasonable comparison.
It seems that the majority of the water consumed by the beef industry would be “used” when it falls from the sky on to the soil which then grows a plant that a cow eats.
While I don’t think this argument, er, holds water for other reasons, it is worth noting that a lot of cattle feed comes from irrigated crops which are grown in areas where they are draining water from underground aquifers and overdrawn rivers faster than they’re being replenished. This video, for example, though it is not wholly about this topic, discusses the common cattle feed of alfalfa, which is a water heavy crop grown widely in the Colorado river basin.
I genuinely don’t know how much US beef is fed alfalfa grown with water drawn from rivers.
My intention with the following is not to throw any shade on the US, but I just don’t know what the farming practices are elsewhere in the world.
In my state, there are no “feed lots” and cattle exclusively graze in paddocks. Their feed is supplemented with silage and hay but none of which is irrigated, even from a local on-property dam. That is to say that the entirety is their feed is grown with direct rainfall.
I’m just pointing out that while some water inputs may be from rivers, it’s not the entirety and I doubt it’s the majority.
Also, assuming we trust these numbers: what are these values “per capita”? The beef industry is absolutely massive and AI data centers are new. How many cows/cow farms are dividing that number? How many compute farms/data centers for the others?
It’s like saying we should be able to leave babies in the swamps with gators because the numbers show gators kill less babies than humans. Neglecting the fact that humans and gators don’t have equal hands-on time with human babies.
No. These don’t include that. 95% of water usage is from feed, regardless. Livestock also have enormous emissions, vastly dwarfing that of AI.