Since the Southeast has been faced with a severe water shortage and residents in North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and other Southern states have been forced to drastically reduce their water use, people have become more mindful of the ways in which we waste water.

Few people realize, however, that nearly half of all the water used in the U.S. is squandered on animal agriculture. You can save more water by not eating a pound of beef than you can by not showering for an entire year.

Between watering the crops grown to feed farmed animals, providing drinking water for billions of animals each year, and cleaning away the filth in factory farms, transport trucks, and slaughterhouses, the farmed animal industry places a serious strain on our water supply. According to a special report in Newsweek, “The water that goes into a 1,000-pound steer would float a destroyer.”

Please do your part to help conserve water: Go vegan.

A totally vegetarian diet requires only 300 gallons of water per day, while a meat-based diet requires more than 4,000 gallons of water per day.

Visit www.GoVeg.com for more information and to order or download a free vegetarian starter kit.

Heather Moore, senior writer

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals

HeatherM@peta.org

Norfolk, Va.

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