Industrial Agriculture’s Water Use: It’s Time for Change

By Wenonah Hauter
Published on June 17, 2011
1 / 3

“Water Matters” brings attention to the necessary changes we all must make to protect our most critical and vital resource: water. This book brings together leading environmental writers and activists to delve into our water crisis. 
“Water Matters” brings attention to the necessary changes we all must make to protect our most critical and vital resource: water. This book brings together leading environmental writers and activists to delve into our water crisis. 
2 / 3

A recent U.S. Department of Agriculture survey reported the United States applied 30 trillion gallons of irrigation water to 55 million acres of cropland in 2008.
A recent U.S. Department of Agriculture survey reported the United States applied 30 trillion gallons of irrigation water to 55 million acres of cropland in 2008.
3 / 3

 This awesome infographic shows how much water is used to produce several of the foods we eat. 
 This awesome infographic shows how much water is used to produce several of the foods we eat. 

The following is an excerpt from Water Matters, editedby Tara Lohan (AlterNet Books, 2010). A collection of essays by experts in environmental issues and water conservation, Lohan has created a go-to guidebook for the important ways we need to change to preserve our healthy waterways and drinking water supply. This excerpt is from the essay “Agriculture’s Big Thirst” by Wenonah Hauter. 

You know things are bad when reservoirs are converted into cornfields. On a 2008 trip from Beijing, I searched in vain for a glimpse of the Miyun reservoir that once provided drinking water for Beijing’s 17 million residents. Instead of lapping waves, there was an ocean of corn. The water was gone.  

This sight may become more common as water-intensive agricultural practices collide with water scarcity. Agriculture is the single largest user of water worldwide, dwarfing everything else. Drinking, cooking, and washing by six billion people combined with all industrial water consumption pale in comparison to watering crops and livestock. Global agriculture uses nearly two quadrillion gallons of rainwater and irrigation water annually–enough to cover the entire United States with 2 feet of water.  

Obviously, crops and animals need water to thrive and sustain a hungry and growing population, but intensive agricultural practices exert more stress on watersheds than rainfed cultivation of ecologically appropriate crops. Even irrigation can sustainably maintain fields during periods of drought. But the worldwide expansion of industrial-scale cultivation of water-intensive crops and feedlots on more marginal land magnifies the pressure on already overstretched water resources. In America, recent high crop prices spurred increased corn cultivation in more arid regions of the high plains and the Rockies. In Central Asia, irrigation of cotton has almost completely eliminated the Aral Sea, once the fourth largest freshwater lake in the world. 

The scale of water withdrawal from rivers, reservoirs, and groundwater for agriculture taxes available water resources. In the developing world, 85 percent of water withdrawals go toward agriculture; rich countries funnel 40 percent of water to agriculture.  

Industrial agriculture’s use of water is a cycle of overuse, waste and pollution. Unfortunately, most of us are a part of that cycle, too. What we eat and how we grow our food is key to our global water crisis. Your hamburger, cup of coffee, and cotton shirt have a water footprint that is determined by the industrial agriculture model. (Check out the infographic in the Image Gallery to see how much water is in different foods and products.) But we have the power to change this model, if we can harness the political will of a new generation of consumers, farmers, and activists. 

Comments (0) Join others in the discussion!
    Online Store Logo
    Need Help? Call 1-800-234-3368