Agriculture the big user of our water

I am writing in response to the front-page story of 14/02/18, which detailed how we can save water.

Nowhere in the article does it highlight one of the biggest causes of water usage in New Zealand: animal agriculture.

What I am not is a stereotype: a hippy-esque vegan, here to force my virtuous beliefs on others.

I would describe myself as a pragmatic veggie, trying hard to minimise the animal products I consume, but failing on occasion.

I grew up consuming meat/ dairy at every meal, a pattern that continues to be a battle to move away from.

However, it is my belief that we quickly move to pigeon-hole others’ ideas as a defence mechanism: ‘‘oh, don’t pay any attention to the pious vegetarian’’.

The idiom of ‘‘ignorance is bliss’’ remains strong within our society when it comes to animal agriculture.

There have been countless examples of strong, smart, completely healthy vegans around the world - but this piece is not about other reasons to cutdown meat.

We are now at a cross-road regarding farming methods.

We cannot continue to use and pollute the rivers and fresh-water ecosystem the way we are currently doing whilst maintaining the green touristfriendly image of New Zealand.

This country now makes more from tourism than from dairy farming so even an economical argument barely holds water.

Animal Agriculture is responsible for 20 per cent to 33 per cent of all fresh water consumption in the world today and growing feed crops for livestock consumes 56 per cent of all agricultural water.

In the US, arguably economically and agriculturally comparable to NZ, only 5 per cent of water consumed is by private homes, 55 per cent for animal agriculture.

If people really want to save water then they should consider that the amount of water used to produce 500 grams of beef is between 1,00-30,000 litres: an average of 9400 litres per quarterpounder.

Compare that to the 3 litres you save doing a half-flush of your new toilet (as stated in the article), you’re wasting your time in the grand scheme of things.

I would counsel that instead of bathing in ignorance, the government, local councils and the individual need to ask themselves a challenging question regarding the way we eat.

Even going veggie once a week would make a real impact on saving water.

This should be the main focus of Go Eco if they are really serious about saving water.

We need to look beyond our own household taps to find better ways to save water around New Zealand.