To produce one portion of beef (250g) requires the same amount of drinking water that one person needs (one litre a day) for 11 years of life.  More than half of the total water required to raise and convert a cow/bull/ox into meat will be flushed down the drain in the abattoir as blood-waste water and for hide removal, de-hairing, evisceration, trimming and carcass washing.

For more information go to www.waterfootprint.org and to Livestock’s Long Shadow – Environmental Issues and Options, released by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations in Rome 2006, at http://www.virtualcentre.org/en/frame.htm