Why is Eating Meat Un-Australian?

In this day & age of water scarcity & drought we are surely in the midst of a water crisis but the media isn’t giving us the full picture. Each Australian household (2.5 ppl) uses an av. of 5,000 litres per week which may sound like a lot of water usage.       

On top of that we are under increasingly tightening water restrictions to help slow down water usage.

These water saving measures are important as every little bit counts but the bigger picture shows we could be having far more impact by also focusing on other areas.   

Firstly infrastructure wastes about 15 % by way of leaking pipes, burst water mains & inadequate maintenance. Secondly the way we eat and what we eat is sending our dam levels further down and in a much more significant way than the average household does.    

 Let’s look at how much water is needed to produce one kilogram of these foodstuff.  

Lamb   51,000 litres           Chicken  3,500 litres           Potatoes  630 litres

Beef    43,000 litres           Rice        1,600 litres          Fish            0 litres

Pork      6,000 litres          Wheat        900 litres  

What we can deduce from these figures is that grazing meat providing animals consume a huge amount of water, particularly lamb & beef, even in comparison to heavily irrigated crops like rice.    

The catch-cry of “eat more beef” is actually helping to dry up this country even more & when you take into account that these grazers need this quantity of water to continue to feed their herds then it seems that they are cutting their own throats.

By just eating one less steak or lamb chop per week could mean that each household saves almost 25,000 litres each week.   

Add to this the significant amount of carbon dioxide and green-house gas that each cow and lamb produces, then a less dependency on this type of meat would be better for our environment.  

By eating more fish & vegetables not only means that we could save an enormous amount of water, but also have a healthier eating pattern.  

Again See Chapter Stoneage Nutrition for more information how to eat healthy, save water and reduce carbon dioxide and green-house gas.