Average water use per person*day by country

Re:Average water use per person*day by country by vacri on Sunday February 02, 2014 @03:30PM (#7167456)

In Australia, the two greatest waterhogs - the ones causing strain on water supply - are cotton and rice. We have a sizeable beef industry. That beef is not eating cotton and rice.

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Re:Average water use per person*day by country by jshen on Sunday February 02, 2014 @04:29PM (#7167665)

"The Agriculture industry consumed 6,987 GL of water in 2009–10. Sheep, beef cattle and grain farming had the highest consumption within the Agriculture industry,"

http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/Lookup/by%20Subject/...

Also

http://www.grub.com.au/News/FoodFacts/post/2013/02/06/In-Aus...

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Re:Average water use per person*day by country by vacri on Monday February 03, 2014 @12:22AM (#7168999)

Sheep, beef cattle and grain farming

Unsurprisingly, when you concatenate these three things together, including both wool farming and wheat, two of the country's major exports, it does rise higher than cotton farming. It's like saying if you put the US, Mexico, and Brazil together, they're bigger than Canada.

Also, from your second link: To understand what’s going on we need to look more closely at the numbers.There are currently about 720,000 head of cattle in Australia’s feedlots, out of a national cattle herd of 28.5 million. This represents about 3%. So, however you look at it, the vast majority of cattle in Australia are grass-fed. <- This is the finishing I was talking about earlier, and the statement that the vast majority of beef doesn't use grazing is wrong.

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Re:Average water use per person*day by country by jshen on Sunday February 02, 2014 @03:32PM (#7167466)

Are you importing feed?

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Re:Average water use per person*day by country by vacri on Sunday February 02, 2014 @03:40PM (#7167491)

No, but we do a lot of grazing. The internals of Australia isn't all desert.

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Re:Average water use per person*day by country by jshen on Sunday February 02, 2014 @03:47PM (#7167518)

The vast majority of beef production does not use grazing.

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Re:Average water use per person*day by country by vacri on Sunday February 02, 2014 @04:17PM (#7167626)

You might want to stick a 'solely' in there, because it's plain not true that the majority of beef production does not use grazing. Most beef production raises on grass and 'finishes' on grain, and there are lots of different grades. Some beef is raised on little but grain. It varies heavily on location and climate.

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Re:Average water use per person*day by country by jshen on Sunday February 02, 2014 @04:30PM (#7167666)

My main point stands. If you want to dramatically reduce your impact on water use, consume less meat.

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Re:Average water use per person*day by country by vacri on Monday February 03, 2014 @12:18AM (#7168986)

And wear less cotton, eat less wheat, sugar, fruits and rice.

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Re:Average water use per person*day by country by jshen on Monday February 03, 2014 @11:10AM (#7171377)

You are arguing for the sake of arguing, and making bad arguments as a result. If you eat vegetables instead of beef you will save a lot of water. You will get the same amount of food, with far less water use.

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