Wasser & Fleisch

Der Economist – nicht unbedingt als Zentralorgan des Veganismus verschrien – bietet in einem interessanten Artikel zum Thema Wasserknappheit wieder einmal ein gutes Argument, den Fleischkonsum zu drosseln. Der Grund: Ressourcenverbrauch.

„Different foods require radically different amounts of water. To grow a kilogram of wheat requires around 1,000 litres. But it takes as much as 15,000 litres of water to produce a kilo of beef. The meaty diet of Americans and Europeans requires around 5,000 litres of water a day to produce. The vegetarian diets of Africa and Asia use about 2,000 litres a day (for comparison, Westerners use just 100-250 litres a day in drinking and washing).

So the shift from vegetarian diets to meaty ones—which contributed to the food-price rise of 2007-08—has big implications for water, too. In 1985 Chinese people ate, on average, 20kg of meat; this year, they will eat around 50kg. This difference translates into 390km³ (1km³ is 1 trillion litres) of water—almost as much as total water use in Europe.“