How Many Gallons of Water Does It Take to Produce One Pound of Beef? A Close Look
Beef is a staple food for many people around the world. A juicy hamburger or perfectly grilled steak is hard to resist! But have you ever wondered just how much water goes into producing that tasty beef? The numbers are quite staggering.
Research shows that on average it takes a whopping 1,847 gallons of water to produce just one single pound of beef in the United States. That’s enough water to fill about 151 bathtubs!
As a beef lover myself, I was shocked when I first learned about the huge water footprint of beef production. In this article, we’ll take a closer look at why it requires so much water to produce beef, how beef compares to other meats, and ways we can reduce the water impacts.
Why Does It Take So Much Water to Produce Beef?
Cattle are thirsty animals and beef production is a water-intensive process from start to finish. Here are the key factors that contribute to its large water footprint:
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Feed and Pasture: Beef cattle consume massive volumes of feed over their lifetimes, including grass, hay, corn, soybeans and more. All of that livestock feed requires water to grow. This makes up the biggest chunk of beef’s water footprint.
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Drinking Water: A cow can guzzle up to 30-50 gallons of water per day! That daily drinking water adds up quickly.
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Processing and Transportation: Large amounts of water are used to process beef in factories, clean facilities, and transport from farms to stores.
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Long Lifespans: Beef cattle live 2-3 years before slaughter, consuming feed and water daily. This lengthens the time water must be expended.
Comparing the Water Demands of Beef, Pork and Chicken
Beef has the largest water footprint by far compared to other meats. Here’s how they break down:
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Beef: 1,847 gallons of water per pound
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Pork: 576 gallons of water per pound
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Chicken: 468 gallons of water per pound
The main reason beef lags far behind is the inefficient conversion of feed to meat. Beef cattle require 5-10 times more feed and water than pigs or chickens to produce one pound of protein.
The Types of Water Used for Beef Production
However, not all water usage is equal when considering environmental sustainability. The water footprint of beef can be divided into three main components:
Green Water: From rainfall used to grow cattle feed crops and graze pastures. Makes up about 90% of beef’s total water use.
Blue Water: Fresh surface and groundwater used for cattle drinking, irrigating crops, and processing. Makes up 9% of water use.
Grey Water: Water that becomes polluted through fertilizers, manure, and factory waste. Makes up 1% of the water footprint.
While blue and grey water have larger environmental impacts per gallon, the sheer amount of green water still strains water supplies in beef producing regions.
Following the Journey from Calf to Burger Patty
To understand the true scale of water used for beef production, let’s trace the full journey:
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Calves drink mother’s milk after birth while grazing on pasture irrigated by rainfall.
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Over their lives, cattle consume 25-45 pounds of feed and 30-50 gallons of drinking water daily.
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At concentrated animal feeding operations, cattle eat irrigated grains like corn to fatten up.
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Slaughterhouses use large amounts of water to process beef and clean facilities.
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Refrigerated trucks transport beef nationwide, using fossil fuels that also depend on water.
At every single stage, from birth through processing and transportation, huge volumes of water are required just to produce one burger patty worth of beef.
Ways to Reduce the Water Impact of Beef
While beef will always have a larger water footprint than plant-based foods, there are things we can do to lower our personal beef water usage:
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Cutting back on beef consumption overall, even by a few meals per week, can reduce water use.
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Choosing grass-fed beef relies more on green rainwater rather than irrigated crops.
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Buying local and pasture-raised beef saves water used in transportation.
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Not wasting beef and using leftovers helps maximize water efficiency.
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Substituting poultry or pork in some recipes saves water over beef.
Even small reductions in beef intake across large numbers of consumers can have a meaningful water conservation impact.
Beef Compared to Other Foods
If you think beef guzzles a lot of water, wait until you see the stats for some other common foods!
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1 pound of cheese: 600 gallons of water
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1 pound of chocolate: 3,170 gallons
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1 pound of coffee: 2,000 gallons
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1 pound of rice: 409 gallons
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1 pound of potatoes: 119 gallons
Many plant crops also have hefty water demands due to irrigation, such as oranges, almonds and avocados. Evaluating the full water life cycle of all our dietary choices provides helpful perspective.
The Bottom Line
At the end of the day, beef production undeniably requires massive amounts of water compared to plant proteins. Moderating beef intake, even slightly, can positively impact water conservation. That being said, completely eliminating beef is unnecessary for most people. As with most things in life, moderation is key!
The next time you grill up a juicy burger or slice of steak, consider the almost bathtub-sized volume of water needed to produce that serving. With this knowledge, we can strive to be mindful consumers and make minor adjustments to our diets that benefit the planet. Together, small changes can add up to create big waves in reducing water waste and using our precious resources more efficiently.
Facts about water use and other environmental impacts of beef production in Canada
Yes, it takes water to produce beef, but in the 2.5 million years since our ancestors started eating meat, we haven’t lost a drop yet.
Based on the most recent science and extensive calculations of a wide range of factors, it is estimated that the pasture-to-plate journey of this important protein source requires about 1,910 US gallons per pound (or 15,944 litres per kilogram) of water to get Canadian beef to the dinner table. That’s what is known as the “water footprint” of beef production.
That may sound like a lot, but the fact is it doesn’t matter what crop or animal is being produced; food production takes water. Sometimes it sounds like a lot of water, but water that is used to produce a feed crop or cattle is not lost. Water is recycled – sometimes in a very complex biological process— and it all comes back to be used again.
Water requirements vary with animal size and temperature. But on average, a 1250 pound (567 kg) beef steer only drinks about 10 gallons (about 38 litres) of water per day to support its normal metabolic function. That’s pretty reasonable considering the average person in Canada uses about 59 gallons (223 litres) per day for consumption and hygiene. And according to the most recent Statistics Canada data, Canada’s combined household and industrial use of water is about 37.9 billion cubic meters annually (a cubic meter equals about 220 gallons or 1000 litres of water) — we humans are a water-consuming bunch.
But back to the beef industry — agriculture in general and beef producers specifically have often been targeted as being high consumers, even “wasters” of water, taking its toll on the environment. However, there’s a lot more to this story – it’s not as simple as 1,910 gallons of water being used for each pound of edible beef produced.
If the beef animal itself only needs about 10 gallons of water per day to function, what accounts for the rest of the water (footprint) required for that 16 oz steak? Often in research terms the water measured in the total water footprint is broken into three colour categories. The footprint includes an estimate of how much surface and ground (blue) water is used to water cattle, make fertilizer, irrigate pastures and crops, process beef, etc.
And then there is a measure of how much rain (green) water falls on pasture and feed crops, and finally how much water is needed to dilute runoff from feed crops, pastures and cattle operations (grey water). Adding these blue, green and grey numbers for cattle produced throughout the world produces a global “water footprint” for beef. It is worth noting that more than 95% of the water used in beef production is green water — it is going to rain and snow whether cattle are on pasture or not. And it is important to remember of all water used one way or another it all gets recycled.
If you look at the life cycle of a beef animal from birth to burger or pasture to pot-roast, the 1,910 gallons per pound is accounting for moisture needed to grow the grass it will eat on pasture and for the hay, grain and other feeds it will consume as it is finished to market weight. It also reflects the water used in the processing and packaging needed to get a whole animal assembled into retail cuts and portion sizes for the consumer. Every step of the process requires water.
Beef industry plays an important diverse role
The fact is, today’s beef cattle were not the first bovid species to set foot on what we now consider Canadian agricultural land. For thousands and thousands of years herds of as many as 30 million bison roamed across North America, including Canada, eating forages and depositing nutrients (manure) back into the soil and living in ecological harmony with thousands of plant and animal species.
Today, the five million head of beef cattle being raised on Canadian farms can’t duplicate that natural system, but as they are managed properly they do provide a valuable contribution to the environment just as the bison did. Beef cows and the pastures they use help to preserve Canada’s shrinking natural grassland ecosystems by providing plant and habitat biodiversity for migratory birds and endangered species, as well as habitat for a host of upland animal species. Properly managed grazing systems also benefit wetland preservation, while the diversity of plants all help to capture and store carbon from the air in the soil.
How much water is needed to produce a pound of beef?
FAQ
How many gallons of water to produce 1 pound of meat?
Beef. It takes approximately 1,847 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of beef — that’s enough water to fill 39 bathtubs all the way to the top.
How much water for 1 lb of beef?
While it’s a well-established fact that meat production requires more water than fruits, vegetables or grains, an average water footprint of 2,000 gallons per …Dec 22, 2022
How much water does it take to produce 1 lb of lunch meat?
In the US to produce one pound (1 lb, 0.4kg) of steak requires, on average, 1,799 gallons of water – for pork it is 576 gallons of water and for a pound of chicken it is 468 gallons of water.
How much water is required to make beef?
Based on this method, it is now generally accepted that producing 1 kg of beef requires an average of 15,000 liters of water worldwide, 95% of which is green water.