Why do I keep buying ribeyes when ...

[Saccopoo]

Originally Posted by whoman69

I really have to question the veracity of your data. The average cow yields 568 lbs of beef. That is 1,420,000 gallons of water for each cow. That is $2130 spent on each cow. It wouldn't be economically feasible.

Exactly. It's why the vast majority of the rest of the world doesn't consume beef. But your thought process comes about from your societal immersion in the land of milk and honey, where four door dualie pickup trucks and aircraft carriers are the accepted norm. Who gives a flying **** if we are sucking up all the worlds fresh water? We got mother ****ing hamburgers, yo!

http://michaelbluejay.com/veg/environment.html

Meat production requires so much water it's hard to comprehend. As the chart shows, a pound of potatoes takes 99.6% less water to produce than a pound of beef, and 97% less than a pound of chicken.

Earlier we said that going meatless makes a bigger impact than any other action you can take. Here's an example: If you gave up showering, you'd save less water than what's required to make a single pound of beef. Not beef for a whole year, just one miserable pound. A whole year's worth of showers takes about 5,200 gallons, but it takes 5,214 gallons to produce a single pound of beef.

http://www.waterfootprint.org/?page=...y&product=beef

The global water footprint of beef production in the period 1996-2005 was about 800 billion m3/yr, which was one third of the total water footprint of animal production in the world (all farm animals) (Mekonnen and Hoekstra, 2010, 2012).

http://www.gracelinks.org/blog/1143/...ter-footprints

When a Prince talks farming, you listen. This is nothing new for the GRACE food program folks, but as the "water guy," that’s all I could think about shortly after reading Chris Hunt’s roundup (or "knowledge dump") of the speakers and themes from May’s Future of Food conference. The "Prince" in question is sadly not his Purple Majesty but rather, Charles, the Prince of Wales, who issued a stern warning –and in the process stirred up a long simmering debate among Americans – that resonated with me because of its virtual water conservation message: Beef production and consumption are water intensive and a drain on our world water supplies.

According to His Royal Highness:

In a country like the United States, a fifth of all your grain production is dependent upon irrigation. For every pound of beef produced in the industrial system, it takes two thousand gallons of water. That is a lot of water and there is plenty of evidence that the Earth cannot keep up with the demand.

Quite resounding, old chap! While it’s a well-established fact that meat production requires more water than fruits, vegetables or grains, an average water footprint of 2,000 gallons per pound of beef is enormous indeed. You might be wondering how the water footprint of meat – using Prince Charles’s statistic – compares to the water footprints of other agricultural products

Water required to produce one pound (1 lb.) of:
•Pork = 576 gallons of water
•Chicken = 468 gallons of water
•Soybeans = 206 gallons of water
•Wheat = 138 gallons of water
•Corn = 108 gallons of water

[DeezNutz]

Originally Posted by Saccopoo

We got mother ****ing hamburgers, yo!

Thank you. That does sound good. Just took some beef out of the freezer. Incorporate a little cherry wood and a high-quality bun...and money.

[Simply Red]

Originally Posted by DeezNutz

Thank you. That does sound good. Just took some beef out of the freezer. Incorporate a little cherry wood and a high-quality bun...and money.

I agree DeezNutz. I like a little hardwood accent in a burger. Really helps the cause.

[Pablo]

Originally Posted by DeezNutz

Thank you. That does sound good. Just took some beef out of the freezer. Incorporate a little cherry wood and a high-quality bun...and money.

Spend a couple of minutes weeping for the world's water supply as you're cooking that bad boy.

[DeezNutz]

Originally Posted by Pablo

Spend a couple of minutes weeping for the world's water supply as you're cooking that bad boy.

I'll try to squeeze some of the excess water into my bourbon, just so it doesn't go to waste, and that's a ****ing sacrifice; I hate tainting perfectly good liquor.

[Pablo]

Originally Posted by DeezNutz

I'll try to squeeze some of the excess water into my bourbon, just so it doesn't go to waste, and that's a ****ing sacrifice; I hate tainting perfectly good liquor.

The things you do for the good of our planet and mankind, Deez.

I'm giving you a standing ovation. I had a good cry this morning when I woke up and found the woman was making a roast today. Such senseless indulgence in beef products always gets me right in the feels.

[Baby Lee]

Originally Posted by Pablo

The things you do for the good of our planet and mankind, Deez.

I'm giving you a standing ovation. I had a good cry this morning when I woke up and found the woman was making a roast today. Such senseless indulgence in beef products always gets me right in the feels.

I'm just going to go ahead and assume you shed those tears over a rainwater reclamation barrel.

[Pablo]

Originally Posted by Baby Lee

I'm just going to go ahead and assume you shed those tears over a rainwater reclamation barrel.

Of course.

[Anyong Bluth]

Originally Posted by DeezNutz

I'll try to squeeze some of the excess water into my bourbon, just so it doesn't go to waste, and that's a ****ing sacrifice; I hate tainting perfectly good liquor.

I do my part for water conservation with my bourbon by always ordering it neat.

[Saccopoo]

Originally Posted by DeezNutz

Thank you. That does sound good. Just took some beef out of the freezer. Incorporate a little cherry wood and a high-quality bun...and money.

[Omaha]

Originally Posted by Saccopoo

I'm not sure what is more ridiculous to me:

1. The crap that I keep learning about how our "food" is produced, or

2. The large majority of people who don't give a shit about it.


Any time I start talking about the shit I have read, a few of my friends roll their eyes and tell me I'm making a big deal out of nothing and there's nothing wrong with heavily processed garbage they constantly eat. Meanwhile, they are getting fatter and fatter, they are sick more than me, their allergies are getting out of control, they can no longer compete with me in any sort of physical activity or sport, and they appear to be aging twice as fast as me. If people would just stop buying that shit, they'd stop making it. I promise.

[Coogs]

Originally Posted by Saccopoo

Exactly. It's why the vast majority of the rest of the world doesn't consume beef. But your thought process comes about from your societal immersion in the land of milk and honey, where four door dualie pickup trucks and aircraft carriers are the accepted norm. Who gives a flying **** if we are sucking up all the worlds fresh water? We got mother ****ing hamburgers, yo!

http://michaelbluejay.com/veg/environment.html



http://www.waterfootprint.org/?page=...y&product=beef



http://www.gracelinks.org/blog/1143/...ter-footprints

Sac,

I'm guessing we are talking corn fed beef, and how much water it takes to raise corn vs how many pounds of corn a cow has to eat before said cow is ready for market.

Most all of that water comes in the form of rain, and soaks right into the ground anyway, so it is not like our fresh water supply is being wasted at your rate stated for every single pound of beef produced.

[Saccopoo]

Originally Posted by Coogs

Sac,

I'm guessing we are talking corn fed beef, and how much water it takes to raise corn vs how many pounds of corn a cow has to eat before said cow is ready for market.

Most all of that water comes in the form of rain, and soaks right into the ground anyway, so it is not like our fresh water supply is being wasted at your rate stated for every single pound of beef produced.

Oglallala aquifer. Cattle industry. Bad combination.

Everywhere you look today, particularly in the western United States, people are seeking to conserve water. You see people washing their cars less often. People are installing low-flow showerheads and sink fixtures and low-flow toilets. You see people using drought-resistant landscaping. The vigilant turn off the water at the sink when brushing their teeth, except to rinse the brush, and when shaving, except to rinse the blade.
These measures are prudent and helpful, but all of them combined don't save anywhere near the amount of water you would save by shifting toward a plant-based diet.

The great Ogallala aquifer is the largest body of fresh water on Earth, and it lies underneath some of the richest farmland in the world -- the great American grain belt. But things are changing. The Ogallala is a fossil aquifer, which means the water in it is left from the melted glaciers of the last Ice Age. It's not like a reservoir or river, which are replenished regularly from rainfuall. When the water in the aquifer is gone, it's gone.

More than 13 trillion gallons of water are taken from the aquifer every year, with the vast majority used to produce beef. More water is withdrawn from the Ogallala aquifer every year for beef production than is used to grow all the fruits and vegetables in the entire country. If we continue pumping out the Ogallala at current rates, it's only a matter of time before most of the wells in Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Colorado, and New Mexico go dry, and portions of these states become scarcely habitable for human beings. This scenario is being predicted by many leading environmentalists.

[Coogs]

I live in North Central Kansas. I am totally aware of this situation. Not all corn grown is directly linked to Ogallala. Just the irrigated corn fields.

There is a whole lot of dry land corn raised in the United States that doesn't affect Ogallala.

[Just Passin' By]

Originally Posted by Coogs

Sac,

I'm guessing we are talking corn fed beef, and how much water it takes to raise corn vs how many pounds of corn a cow has to eat before said cow is ready for market.

Most all of that water comes in the form of rain, and soaks right into the ground anyway, so it is not like our fresh water supply is being wasted at your rate stated for every single pound of beef produced.

The whole gallon/pound argument used by the anti-meat crowd is based on misleading and manipulative data and claims, and they still can't agree on which made up number it is.