Following my post last month about London’s imminent water shortage, there has been a deluge of rain in the UK. It seems counter intuitive to talk about water scarcity while people are being flooded out of their houses. But this extreme weather has been attributed to climate change which is expected to significantly change access to water across the globe. I, like many, thought water scarcity was caused by the demands from the rising number of humans on the planet. It is, but not in the way we think.
According to the OECD, demand for water is set to soar. By 2050 we will need 55 per cent more water than we did in 2000. And farmers will account for three quarters of this use. It isn’t the human race who accounts for most water being used, it is the animals raised for meat and dairy.
The Water Footprint Network says that each kilogramme of beef produced uses 15,415 litres of water, compared to 4,055 for pulses. Beef requires almost six times more water to produce the same amount of protein as beans, lentils and peas. Starchy roots such as potatoes use 387 litres of water per kilogram compared to 1020 for milk. They both, however, produce the same amount of protein per litre of water.
Chicken meat needs 4,325 litres per kg, eggs 3,265 litres, pigs 5,988 litres and sheep 8,763 litres, compared to just 322 for vegetables. Almost all (98%) of the water used by the meat and dairy industry is used to grow the animal’s feed. Of the water required by global animal production, one third is used in the rearing of beef cattle, while 19% is for dairy cows.
National Farmers Union statistics show livestock farming is concentrated in the north and south west of England where water scarcity is less of a problem. However, it is these areas that have suffered some of the worst flooding in England, leading to agricultural waste to run into British waterways.
All over the world, including the UK coastlines, dead zones are being created by algae as a result of this waste. These are being highlighted by a growing number a scientists, most recently biochemist and wildlife biologist Lisa Bonin in the BBC documentary, Meat: A threat to our planet. Another devastating side effect is the deforestation in the Amazon, the number one cause of which is to make way for cattle. Meanwhile, further north in Brazil, the vast tropical savannah that is the Cerrado region, home to 5% of the planet’s animals and plants, is being transformed into farmland to feed the world’s livestock.
The oceans are being stripped of small fish such to create fish-based animal food. According to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation, in 2018 15.8 million tonnes of fish were used for animal feed, almost 9% of all fish caught or farmed, the latter coming with its own environmental impact.
Other scientists have questioned the efficiency of eating meat on human health, most notably this year on Netflix’s The Game Changers. Their argument is that livestock act as “middle men” when it comes to getting the nutrients we need. Cutting them out and eating a plant-based diet would result in fulfilling the same dietary requirements without needing as much water and land, the documentary claims.
So should we reduce how much meat and dairy we eat, or even stop altogether, in order to prevent water scarcity in the future? It certainly is food for thought.