Seminary Journal 2008 (August) - Virginia Theological Seminary

When the Rivers Run Dry—that title,
I hope, is self-explanatory. It tells why
some of the world’s greatest rivers no
longer reach the sea. Why the world’s
atlases no longer tell the truth. And
what this tells us about the state of the
global water supply.
First some numbers. Few of us realise
how much water it takes to get us
through the day. On average, we drink
not much more than a gallon of the
stuff. Even after washing and fl ushing
the toilet, we in Britain get through
only around 40 or 50 gallons each. But
that is just the start. It is only when we
add in the water needed to grow what
we eat and drink that the numbers really
begin to soar.
Try a few of these numbers for size,
if you can. It takes between 250 and
650 gallons of water to grow a pound
of rice. That is more water than many
households use in a week. For just a
bag of rice. It takes 130 gallons to grow
a pound of wheat, and 65 gallons for
a pound of potatoes. And when you
start feeding grain to livestock for animal
products like meat and milk, the
numbers become yet more startling.
It takes 3,000 gallons to grow the feed
for enough cow to make one quarterpound
hamburger; and between 500
and 1,000 gallons for that cow to fi ll its
udders with a quart of milk.
Turn those stats into meal portions
and you come up with more than 25
gallons for a portion of rice, 40 gallons
for the bread in a sandwich or a serving
of toast, 130 gallons for a two-egg
omelette or a mixed salad, 265 gallons
for a glass of milk, 400 gallons for an
ice cream, 530 gallons for a pork chop.
And if you have a sweet tooth, so
much the worse. Every teaspoonful
VIRGINIA SEMINARY JOURNAL AUGUST 2007
It takes between 250 and
650 gallons of water to
grow a pound of rice;
130 galllons to grow a
pound of wheat;
65 gallons for a pound of
potatoes.
One teaspoon of sugar
requires 50 cups of water to
grow it.
37 gallons are needed to
grow the coffee itself.
A glass of wine or pint of
beer requires 66 gallons;
A glass of brandy:
530 gallons.
It takes 3,000 gallons to
grow the feed for enough
cow to make ONE quarterpound
hamburger.
Between 500 and 1,000
gallons are needed for that
cow to fi ll its udder with a
quart of milk.
of sugar in your coffee requires 50
cups of water to grow it. Which is a
lot, but not as much as the 37 gallons
of water (or 590 cups) needed to grow
the coffee itself. Prefer alcohol? A glass
of wine or pint of beer with dinner
requires about another 66 gallons, and
a glass of brandy afterwards takes a
staggering 530 gallons.
We are all used to reading detailed
technical information about the nutritional
content on most food packaging.
Maybe it is time that we were
given some clues as to how much
water it took to grow and process
the food. Because this is becoming a
global problem.
I reckon that, as a typical meat-eating,
beer-swilling, milk-guzzling Westerner,
I consume in this way more than a
hundred times my own weight in water
every day. And growing the crops
to feed me for a year must take 2,000
to 3,000 tons—most of the contents of
an Olympic-size swimming pool. Hats
off, then, to my vegetarian daughter,
who gets by with around half that.
And time surely to go out and preach
the gospel of water conservation. On
the Internet you can buy jokey T-shirts
with slogans like “Save water, bathe
with a friend.” But please don’t. It’s
a good message, but you could fi ll
roughly 25 bathtubs with the water
needed to grow the cotton to make the
shirt.
Where does that water all come from?
Living in Britain, as I do, most homegrown
crops are watered by rain. So
the water is at least cheap. But Britain
is unusual. In much of the world,
including the United States, the water
to grow crops is frequently collected
from rivers or pumped from underground
and delivered to fi elds. It is
increasingly liable to deprive someone
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