Hacker News Reader

Literally no one worth a mention was saying the animal slaughter industry adds or removes water from the water cycle in meaningful quantities. The issue with their water usage is in the redirection of the limited fresh water sources into the virtually unlimited saltwater oceans, or pollutes it beyond the point of usability for any form of life.

View on HN

The limit on fresh water is a local problem. Maybe that's an issue in California during dry years, but not in North Carolina or Iowa, which are subject to completely different rainfall patterns.

And one of the problems in California is how much water almonds use.

Yup, drupes and nuts account for about 10% of California's water usage, behind only domestic animal agriculture (~30%) and feed exported for foreign animal agriculture (~15%).

None of these belong in the desert, if anywhere.

But neither of those places has the diversity or scale of California’s agricultural system—it’s one of the most reliable suppliers of the food on America’s plate. And that’s why California’s water problem is a local problem for most Americans.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com