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76 P R A C T I C A L W I N E R Y & V I N E YA R D April 2015 B O O K E X C E R P T help individuals, companies, regions and even countries practice more intel- ligent water usage. The water footprint of beef is a telling example for the American West. This region celebrates wide-open spaces and the iconic cowboys on horseback, driving cattle. One of its signature products—beef — is the most water- intensive food produced anywhere. The water footprint of beef includes water used to grow feed grain, water used to produce the antibiotics admin- istered to cattle during their three-year average lifespan until slaughter, and water used in processing the meat. The water required to grow the feed grain alone is about 4,042 gallons per animal. In addition, a cow drinks on average 6,340 gallons of water in three years. Added together, the amount of water used to produce a single, 6-ounce serving of steak is 2,600 gallons. Dairy products are equally water-intensive for the same reasons. Forty-nine gal- lons of water are used to produce a single 8-ounce glass of milk. These numbers can radically alter how we compute actual water usage. On average, the direct water usage per day — water used for drinking, cooking, bathing, washing clothes, sanitation and landscaping — is currently about 1,430 gallons per person in the American West. If the indirect, or embedded, costs are included, the average water footprint per person per day jumps to 4,110 gallons per day, or 1.5 million gallons per year— enough water to submerge a football field to a depth of 4 feet. The water footprint of an average resi- dent of the American West is signifi cantly greater than that of a resident of the eastern United States. Higher overall rainfall in the East, including summer rains, reduces the need for irrigation in landscaping and agriculture. In contrast, virtually all crops grown in the arid West, and most landscaping, require irri- gation, which increasingly comes from ancient aquifers located beneath the ground. These concepts were written about some 20 years ago by Marc Reisner in Cadillac Desert. The West's real crisis is one of iner- tia, of will, and of myth. As Wallace Stegner wrote, somehow the cow and the cowboy and the irri- gated field came to symbolize the region, instead of the bison and the salmon and the antelope that once abounded here. But they might be driving bison, in reasonable num- bers, instead of cows, and raising them, for the most part, on unir- rigated land—which bison tolerate far better than cows. In a West that once and for all made sense, you might import a lot more meat and dairy products from states where they are raised on rain, rather than dream of importing those states' rain. (pp. 514–15) The western water footprint expands far beyond its geographic boundaries, since half of the nation's produce is grown in the West. Water policy experts are now asking whether it makes sense for California and the West to be grow- ing water-intensive crops — such as cattle feed, rice and cotton — for the rest of the country. PWV B. Lynn Ingram is professor of earth and planetary science and geography at the University of California, Berkeley. Frances Malamud-Roam is associate environmen- tal planner and biologist at Caltrans and visiting scholar in the Department of Earth and Planetary Science at the University of California, Berkeley. GrapeParts4Less.com Paying Too Much For Picking Rods? Now You Have A Low Cost Source! GrapeParts4Less.com supplies quality American made picking rods, closures, and parts for all major grape harvester brands. Call 559-277-7382 or visit our website. Mastercard or VISA accepted. GrapeParts4Less.com Your Low Cost Source For Quality Harvester Parts Se habla Espaňol. GP4L_W&V_April_2012.indd 1 2/27/12 11:59 AM