The document discusses the high water usage and pollution from meat industries such as beef and pork production. Piggery effluent has a biochemical oxygen demand over 5,000 times higher than human sewage, and requires extensive treatment. Beef production also uses significant water, with estimates of 50,000 litres needed per kilogram of beef. This does not account for the water used to irrigate the pastures. Other industries like cotton and wool production also use substantial amounts of water, with over 170,000 litres needed per kilogram of wool produced. Overall, meat and dairy industries account for a large portion of Australia's water usage.

1. Water and Piggeries Water, Rice and Methane
Not only are the meat industries prodigious users Many environmentalists are fiercely critical of rice
of water, most of the water they do use ends up growing in Australia. However the data shows that
seriously polluted and needs treatment. Abattoir rice uses far less water than beef production. Why
waste water and piggery effluent is some of the is the environmental movement generally silent on Eating
most highly polluted water in the world, requiring beef? Water
extensive treatment before release or reuse.
Any replacement of beef by rice will save water.
But more importantly it will significantly reduce Where does Australia’s water go? Look on your
methane production because beef production pro- plate not in your garden.
duces far more methane than rice production. From
an environmental viewpoint, any grain is preferable
to beef. Australia produces more calories of rice
than beef but the methane from rice production
amounts well under 1 per cent of the amount of
methane from cattle and sheep.
The global comparisons of methane and food volumes
is as follows:
600
80
60 400
Global Global
Methane production Calorie production
megatonnes/Yr 40
200 Cal/person/day
Source: Houghton 20 Source: FAO Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows which
The usual measure of the quality of water is the 0 0 commodities use the most irrigation water in Aus-
Rice Livestock Rice Beef tralia.
BOD (Biochemical Oxygen Demand — the amount
of oxygen required by bacteria for the decompo- Rice feeds a huge global population with stunning Irrigation Water Use in Australia (giga litres)
sition of organic matter in 5 days at a standard efficency. A recent scientific study showed that rice Pastures – Grazing
temperature). The BOD of human sewage is 300 to paddies actually sequester large amounts of carbon. Cotton
500 mg per litre, piggery effluent has a BOD of more Sugar Cane
However the Chinese have increased their beef con- Mining and Manufacturing
than 5,000 mg per litre. Cereal crops – grain,seed
sumption 4 fold in the past decade and much of it Pastures – hay,silage
But piggery waste also contains many harmful comes from Australia. In 1990 we exported 172,000 Fruit Trees, nuts, plantations
pathogens. Typically, waste treatment is via bacteria tonnes of beef to China — well over half their total Rice
Grapevines
through a series of large settling ponds with the imports. In 2004 we exported 662,000 tonnes of Vegetables – human use
resulting sludge spread over fields. But fields can beef to China. As the Australian herd increases, Pastures – Seed
only take so much of this, so then the waste is Cereal crops – hay
so does the methane from the cattle. Methane is a Cereal crops not grain,seed
trucked further and further away — a very energy potent greenhouse gas and the methane from our Other broadacre crops
intensive business. cattle and sheep has over twice the impact on global Nurseries,flowers,turf
So, pig farming consists of inhumane treatment of warming as our entire transport sector. Grain fed 500 1000 1500 2000 2500
sows for extended periods in sow stalls, high use beef generally produce 2 or 3 times the amount
of methane as feedlot beef which is why Australia But the water used by the beef and dairy indus-
and heavy pollution of water. And the major output tries goes far beyond mere irrigation water — see
is a food which raises rates of colorectal cancer has 1/4 the number of cattle as the US, but they
produced over 1/2 as much methane. inside for the full facts. Note: Mining and manu-
(like all red meat) and heart disease (like meat in facturing are not irrigation users, but are included for
general). Australia has 40,000 heart operations and Anybody with a concern for global warming should comparison.
11,000 new cases of colorectal cancer each year. be hoping that we can replace beef consumption
with plant centered diets.

2. Where does the water go? Water for Beef Water and Milk Production
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) keeps We produce about 2 million tonnes of beef annually Australia’s milk production in 2004 was 10,075
records of water usage in Australia. About 25,000 in Australia, between 1/3 and 1/2 is eaten here and million litres. About half is generally exported and
giga litres is used annually. Here is where 70% of the rest is exported. 60% of what remains is used for making dairy
that water goes: products like cheese and yogurt. Producing the
You may have read that it takes 50,000 litres of
raw milk required 3,542 giga litres of water. This
Major Water Users (giga litres) water to produce a kg of beef. This figure includes
is about 318 litres of water to produce each litre of
rain water that falls on the pasture and isn’t counted
milk you drink — which is actually pretty good!
Dairy as extracted water by the ABS. Again this is a CSIRO
But other dairy products, like cheese, cost over 4812
Beef figure. In this case from Wayne Meyer, a Professor
litres per kg to produce.
Cotton of irrigation.
Household The average non-milk dairy consumption in Aus-
In a sense, this is a measure of the intensity of
Rice tralia is about 11kg/yr. So a person not eating dairy
our use of the land. Instead of the 50,000 litres
Fruit and Veg products saves about 53 thousand liters of water per
Sugar
nourishing natural vegetation and forests, we clear
annum. That’s about half the average annual per
Sheep and Wool the forests, stock the land with cattle and coopt a
capita household water usage.
Grapes massive proportion of the bioproductivity of the
region for our use. The countries in the world with the most osteoporo-
1000 2000 3000 sis are the ones with the highest dairy consumption.
The figures in the above graph include more water For strong bones into old age, you need calcium
than the graph on the front of this leaflet because
Water for Wool and Cotton and plenty of exercise, but many plant foods have
this graph is total water, not just irrigation. calcium, you don’t need dairy foods.
The graphs in this leaflet show that cotton is a
The figures for dairy and beef in the above graph prodigious user of water. We produce between
don’t come from the ABS, but from a 2005 CSIRO 300,000 and 600,000 tonnes of cotton per annum.
report called Balancing Act — which provides some This is now very similar to wool production which
breakdowns that the ABS doesn’t. has declined in the past 15 years. Wool doesn’t
appear separately in the ABS figures, but CSIRO
Neither this graph nor the front cover graph include puts the water use at about 700 giga litres. So wool
water like normal rain which falls on pastures and uses much less extracted water per kilo than cotton.
croplands. The graphs only deal with “extracted”
water — water we have worked to provide. However Professor Meyer has also measured the
total water used to produce a kilogram of wool
Note that household water is listed as just 9% of the — 171,500 litres. No that’s not a misprint! A 4kg
total. But this 9% figure is totally misleading. Your woollen suit will therefore cost 685,000 litres to
choice of food types and services has a dramatic produce. For cotton, the total water required is
impact on the other 91% of water use. about 5,300 litres/kg.
Household water use in Australia is about 120,000
litres/year per person. The Australian Conservation References
Foundation website has an eco-footprint calculator
Authoritative information on water is contained
which calculates the water attributable to your Animal Liberation Inc. (SA)
in the the Water Account Australia 2000-01 from
lifestyle. This is the water that doesn’t appear on PO Box 114,
the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Also the 2005
your water bill but is attributable to your lifestyle. Rundle Mall, SA 5000
CSIRO Balancing Act. Both documents are available
The amount of meat in a high meat diet, such as the
on-line. Wayne Meyer’s paper Water for food is
CBA Phone: 08 8340 8878
CSIRO diet, will increase your water usage by about http://www.animalliberation.org.au
also on-line at http://www.clw.csiro.au/
200,000 litres per annum. Email: animal.lib.sa@gmail.com
publications/water for food.pdf.
February 2007 V1.8beef, Author: Geoff Russell