This represents all the water used inone year in the Western United States.For the past 20-plus years, a megadrought,made worse by manmade global warminghas left the West drier than it’s beenin over a thousand years.That includes the Colorado River system wherereservoirs have been depleted to record lows.Which has people talking about waysto cut back.“Cities are taking aim at thebackyard swimming pool.”“Restrictions, such as not washing carsat home, and no power washing houses.”“Businesses and residents must cut theiroutdoor watering to just one day a week.”But this is all the residential water usefor 115 million peopleacross 17 Western states.All the lawn watering and tooth brushingand pools and showersuse only 6 percent of all water consumption.The rest of this tells a totallydifferent story.A team of researchers came up withthese water use estimates.And they found that another 8 percentgoes towards commercial and industrial useslike offices, hotel fountains, mines,and power plants.Together with residential usethat’s 14 percent of all water consumptionin the West.All of what’s left in here — the other 86 percent is for growing crops.Irrigated agriculture is the big story.All the other water users added together...don't come close to irrigated agriculture.In the dry western states, farms can’t count on rainso crops need irrigation.So here’s soybeans, nuts, wheat,fruits & veggies, corn.But what’s even more surprising is thatthe biggest share of this watergoes to crops humans don’t eat.The biggest water guzzler is alfalfa.You might not recognize this plantbut if you’ve ever seen a bale of hay thatlooks greenish: that’s alfalfa.Unlike a lot of crops, with enough waterfarmers in the West can harvest it up to12 times a year and sell every last bit.It's about a 9 to 10 month crop down in our part of the desert.And so you're farming it 9 or 10 monthsand therefore, you're irrigating itduring that time.We can group alfalfa’s water with the waterused for other grass haysand for corn silage.Together, this accounts for 32% of the West’sentire water footprint.And what they have in common is that theseare all crops grown almost exclusivelyto feed cows.That’s more than all the residential andcommercial uses combined.A third of all the water consumed in the West...just for feeding cattle.Americans eat nearly 4 times more beefthan the global average.Our dairy intake has been increasingfor decades, too.And we’re not alone.At least 10% of this cattle feed ends up oncontainer ships crossing the pacificto feed cows in Japan, China, andthe Middle East.Agriculture in the United States is builtto supply a world export market.So what do we do about this?It’s clear that letting our lawns diewould make less of an impact thanchanging our diets.But that solution is a hard sell for consumerseven the most informed ones.In case anybody takes me for like a meat hatinglike college professor...cheeseburgers are my favorite food.And my cheeseburgers come fromColorado River water.So I have thought about it and I think thatbefore we all stop eating meatwe should explore a couple ofother solutions.Ben and his co-authors highlight an approachcalled “rotational fallowing.”It enables agencies representingmetropolitan water usersto set a price that they’ll pay farmersto temporarily stop irrigating a portion of their fields.Farmers decide whether it’s worth it inany given year to take that deal.And the unused water can then be sent to thecities...or left in reservoirs.Can fallowing hay and alfalfa in the Colorado River Basinsolve the current 2022 year drought crisis?The answer is yes.There’s a long-term agreement like thisin place between the water district thatserves LA and San Diegoand the Palo Verde Irrigation Districtin rural California.The deal allows up to 29% of the total farmlandto be fallowed.It's been largely well receivedin our valley.I think farmers like it.Bart Fisher’s farm depends entirely on waterfrom the Colorado Riverso he supports the conservation program.But he also says it doesn't work for everyone.Whenever you do fallowingthere are economic losers and economic winners.And some of our vendors who may sell seedor fertilizer, they're a loser.Jobs, communities, and global supply chainscurrently rely on western farmersgrowing vast amounts of cow foodin the middle of the desert.But as water supplies continue to shrink,something has to give:in how we eat, what we grow, andwhere we grow it.When you look at the water use on the riverthe short term savings has to come out of agriculture.There's no...there's no other place to get it.
