Water is a commodity, but it shouldn’t be; clean plentiful water is a human right and it’s our responsibility to hold water stewards accountable for how they handle this public entity. #WaterIsTheNewOil
- CA State Water Project water comes from Sierra Nevada snowmelt
- 80% of water goes to agriculture
- CA grows 50% of the produce for the nation
- CA drought has decreased the amount of water from snowmelt
- 60% of water is now pumped from aquifers due to drought
- Excessive groundwater-pumping the land causes it to sink by feet/year
- More than 50% of our major aquifers are being depleted
- Land is sinking all across the United States
- Companies are strategically farming on land above the water
- Wine grapes are the cover crop for the true harvest, which is water
- Things like this are happening around the world due to climate change
- Private companies can not be stewards of a public resource
- More than one million CA residents do not have clean drinkable water
- Within 10 years, 2/3 of the world population could be water-stressed
- 1.8 billion people could face absolute water scarcity
- Agriculture is producing three times beyond true water sustainability
- It takes one gallon of water to produce just one almond
If you care about conserving water, you have a responsibility to accurately understand how much water goes into the food you consume.
In each major category, here are the top three most thirsty foods, measured in gallons of water per ounce of production.
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“Fifteen million trees in the San Joaquin Valley consume more than 400,000 acre-feet of water a year. The city of Los Angeles, by comparison, consumes 587,000 acre-feet.”
—Mark Arax, A Kingdom from Dust
Water Literacy Primer 