When I hear about the drought, I can’t help but think how absurd it is to leave diet out of the conversation. Corporate agribusiness uses 80 percent of California’s water. It takes 660 gallons of water to produce 1/4 pound of hamburger meat and it takes 1,000 gallons of water to produce 1 gallon of milk. This is why it seems insane to me that Governor Brown’s drought plan focuses on mostly urban water use (think lawns, golf courses, parks) which makes up less than 25 percent of Californian’s overall water use. 25% is a lot of water use, so no doubt this should get addressed. However, addressing animal agriculture (80%) is crucial!
Moby was featured in an article on this issue last year and spoke some serious drought truth!  “A pound of beef can take up to 10,000 gallons of water to create, whereas a pound of broccoli takes 90 gallons of water to create. It just didn’t make any sense to me that California would subsidize and facilitate irresponsible water use.” Check out his article for deeper thoughts on California’s water subsidies and background info on water legislation. 
A kind lifer sent this short video to me. It’s put together by the California Water Conservation Bureau and features the comedian Eddie Pepitone, who is funny and outrageous, and vegan! Who knew?! Share this video with your friends and let’s spread the word that our diet is greatly connected to the drought and water use!

Do you know any other people or groups that are working to confront this issue? What are your thoughts on diet and the drought??
Photo Credit: Cowspiracy