I am a frequent visitor to our local post office and, as I stand in the queue, I watch, for the umpteenth time, the big screen video of a little boy sitting dangling his feet into an empty swimming pool. The only water in sight, is the tear that trickles down his cheek. Presented by the Department of Water and Forestry, the advert aims to remind us, obviously, that we need to save and conserve water otherwise there might be none left for our future generations.

Of course, the concept that we need to save water is nothing new. South Africans are quite used to water restrictions. The threat that water ‘stress’ in our part of the world is going to worsen in the near future, especially with encroaching desertification as a result of Global Warming, is something of which we are all aware.

Many of us are vigilant these days and ensure we don’t have dripping taps in our homes, that we shower instead of bath and that, if possible, we collect our used ‘grey’ water to keep our gardens green.

However, no-one, until now, has cried out ‘Eat Less Meat and Dairy’ in order to save water. Yet, as you will see as you read on, the actual price of our meat-and-dairy-heavy diet, is drying up our water resources at a staggering and frightening rate that exceeds virtually any other of our activities.  As guest columnist, actress Joanna Lumley, wrote in The London Times on World Food Day on 16th October 2007: “We may not all want to be vegans – though the time to mock their plant-based diet is long gone – but we can all take steps to alter our own eating habits.”

To read more about how you can become part of Compassion in World Farming’s Big Food Challenge, please go to www.ciwf.org/globalwarming and start today!

Sincerely,
Louise van der Merwe