Meat Industry Wasting Staggering Amount Of Water During Drought

<p> <a href="http://pixabay.com/en/arid-background-climate-desert-20821/" target="_blank">Pixabay </a>/ Public Domain Picture<span></span><br> </p>
<p> <a href="http://pixabay.com/en/arid-background-climate-desert-20821/" target="_blank">Pixabay </a>/ Public Domain Picture<span></span><br> </p>

Hi, my name is Kip Andersen and I'm a filmmaker from San Francisco, California.

California is experiencing one of its worst droughts on record and I do what I can to conserve water and educate my friends and neighbors about it. And while this drought does indeed have many components, I have seen one too many articles (and petitions on Change.org) putting the blame on almonds, bottled water and household use.

When I learned that the fracking industry - despite the drought - used 70 million gallons of water last year alone, I was stunned. When I learned that the Nestlé bottled water corporation is taking hundreds of millions of gallons of California's water to sell it back to the population, I got angry. But, when I learned that animal agriculture in California is using a staggering amount of 4.8 trillion gallons per year, I was shocked! So shocked indeed, that I made a film about it.

I couldn't believe that the meat and dairy industry accounts for 47 percent of California's water footprint, yet no one is trying to regulate this thirsty industry! But here is the most painful truth: California exports 100 billion gallons of water in the form of alfalfa every year to Asia for meat and dairy production!

Alfalfa, a crop that is not cultivated for humans, consumes a whopping 15 percent of California's water, more than any other crop. Grown on over 1 million acres in the state, this crop is almost entirely fed to livestock for both grass-fed operations and factory farms. Every year, California is exporting approximately 30 percent of the alfalfa grown in the state to meet the demand in Asia to feed the meat and dairy industry there. Through the process of growing, we are sending roughly 100 billions gallons of our precious and depleted resources to other countries.

Shouldn't we be seriously talking about the state's most water intensive crop? Shouldn't we be having the conversation about why we are shipping a massive quantity of our water out of the country? Shouldn't we be focusing our attention to the (cow) in the room?

That's why I started a petition on Change.org that points out the most ridiculous fact about how the animal industry is wasting California's water: exporting billions of gallons of water to Asia in the form of alfalfa for meat and dairy production!

Join me in asking Governor Jerry Brown to hold the meat and dairy industry responsible for its tremendous water usage and stop the export of 100 billion gallons of California's water to Asia.

Thanks so much for your support,
Kip Andersen