Posted on July 23, 2015
by Jann Lau, Market Analyst at Organica Water
Water Conservation, Meat The Truth
Our Earth has a finite amount of water and an arguably finite amount of usable land (save for land reclamation activities and the effects of climate change). Raising animals for food (including land used for grazing and land used to grow feed crops) currently uses a staggering 30% of the Earth’s land mass, equivalent to an area greater than North and South America combined! Of all the agricultural land in the United States, 80% is used to raise animals for food and grow grain to feed those same animals. And nearly 50% of all the water used in the United States goes to raising animals for food.
It’s clear to see in the map above (from the shades of pink/red states) that a significantly higher percentage of money is made from selling crops grown in the United States to feed animals than humans.
To make things worse, global consumption of meat has doubled over the past 30 years. This trend is expected to continue, driven by a dramatic increase in population growth (estimated to exceed 9 billion by 2050), exacerbated by rising standards of living and urbanization, particularly in developing countries. As incomes rise, the first thing people do is change their diets, typically substituting calories from roots, tubers and rice for wheat calories; and then substituting meat and animal proteins for carbohydrates.
What’s All the Beef About?
Recognizing this unsustainable trend, and enormous opportunity, has led investors to open up their checkbooks and birth many innovative food startups including Hampton Creek, which uses a laboratory-born egg substitute to make mayonnaise and cookies; Impossible Foods, developing a new generation of meat and cheese from plants; and Beyond Meat, introducing meat foods based on plant protein products found in peas and soy. In 2014 alone, specialty food startups attracted over $100 million in venture funding, and over $2.3 billion was invested in agricultural technology. This agricultural technology investment sector now includes bio-plastics, biofuels, fish farming, genomics, getting fresh produce to shops without spoiling and ways to food waste.
The reason for substituting animal products with plants is simple. Animals require vastly more food, water, land, and energy than plants to raise and transport. It takes more than 15,500 liters of water to produce 1 kilogram of beef and only 1,300 liters to produce 1 kilogram of wheat.
Essentially, this means that all our water conservation efforts – including “low flush” toilets and reduced lawn irrigation – are just a drop in the bucket (pun completely intended) relative to fundamental changes in how we manage our food production.
Disclaimer: I am not a vegetarian.
