How Does a Vegan Lifestyle Save Water?

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When I started thinking about this article, I couldn’t help but think about how much more a vegan lifestyle is than just what’s on your plate.

Like a tree, a vegan lifestyle starts with a seed planted, before the person even goes vegan.

Maybe they hear about it from a friend…

Then, they start noticing vegan options in restaurants, grocery stores, or other people they know start to go vegan.

The seed sprouts.

After that, maybe they try it out for themselves.

Roots begin to grow.

Each root represents a reason an individual adopts a vegan lifestyle.

Maybe one for health. One for animals. One for the environment. Or something else…

Each person’s “vegan lifestyle tree” may or may not be built on all the same roots, but either way, a tree begins to grow.

The more confident one feels in their lifestyle choice with veganism, the bigger the tree grows.

Each branch that grows out of the tree blossoms into a representation of all the benefits of a vegan lifestyle.

There are infinite beneficial branches that can come out of a “vegan lifestyle tree.” (See 219 of them here…)

But, saving water is one of the biggest.

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How does a vegan lifestyle save water?

Adopting a vegan lifestyle is tremendous for cutting down the amount of water used to make your food exist.

You may be wondering, “Wait a minute, how does that work?”

You’re not alone, my friend! It’s confusing!

Let’s break it down.

Meat, dairy, poultry, pork, and egg-filled diets require animals.

Animals not only drink water, but they also eat way more crops than a human does.

Crops take water to grow, so the more crops needed to feed an animal, the more water is needed.

When you stop eating animals, the amount of water that sustains your lifestyle will be shockingly less.

In fact, it’s five times less.

Every single year, animal agriculture is responsible for the use of 34-78 trillion gallons of water, according to Cowspiracy: The Facts.

So, essentially, it all works with supply and demand.

The less animal lives are demanded for food, the less they’ll be bred into existence.

The fewer animals are bred into existence, the less water is needed.

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Why does it matter if a vegan diet saves water?

Fresh water is a sacred commodity that not everyone has access to around the world.

According to Humane Society International, “Globally 2.1 billion people live without safe water and around 4 billion people – nearly two-thirds of the world’s population – experience severe water scarcity during at least one month of the year. According to the United Nations, 700 million people worldwide could be displaced by intense water scarcity by 2030.”

When major water supplies are being used to raise farm animals rather than to support human lives, it puts more value into our tastebuds than providing a basic need to all people on the planet.

With water being under such immense threat, it highlights the areas we’re unnecessarily wasting a truly profound amount of water for factors in our diet we can survive without (aka: eating meat, dairy, poultry, eggs, pork).

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How much water does a vegan lifestyle save exactly?

Yes, a vegan lifestyle does need water to support it. No one is denying that.

The amount of water it takes to support a vegan lifestyle is a fraction of what it takes to support an animal-product-fueled diet.

According to the USDS, however, it takes around 2,000 gallons of water (9,000 liters) to produce one pound of beef and 500 gallons to produce one pound of poultry (these are estimations).

“477 gallons of water are required to produce 1lb of eggs” and “1000 gallons of water to produce 1 gallon of milk,” - Cowspiracy: The Facts.

On the other hand, it takes between 100-110 gallons of water to produce one pound of corn or potatoes.

In comparison to any animal products, that is beyond astounding.

Here’s a crazy fact from One Green Planet:

  • One acre of land produces approximately 250 pounds of beef. “That same acre of land can produce nearly 20,000 pounds of potatoes and 50,000 pounds of tomatoes. Think about that. One acre of land produces a whopping 10 tons of potatoes and 25 tons of tomatoes.”

Those are crazy stats!!!

To summarize this water issue…

In one year, a person who consumes beef uses approximately 401,500 gallons of water.

In one year of being vegan, a person uses approximately 80,300 gallons of water (again, that’s 5x less).

If more people shift to a vegan lifestyle, it can reduce our overall consumption of precious water resources available on the planet.

A meat-free diet has the smallest water footprint, so if that’s not a reason to go vegan than I don’t know what is!

(Just kidding, I have loads more reasons to go vegan. In fact, you can read about them here.)

Here’s one last bonus fact that I’ll leave you with:

Animal agriculture is the biggest polluters of fresh water on the planet.

The runoff waste from farms in addition to the elements that evaporate and create acid rain all impact our fresh water supply and minimize humanity’s chances of gaining access to fresh, safe water.

Animal agriculture isn’t just using tons of water, it’s also polluting a lot of the rest of it!

SOLUTION: GO VEGAN!

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Kelsey PowellComment