The Great Water Heist: How Meat Production Is Draining America’s Aquifers | Rising Anxieties

Actually, I'm having a bad day, so it, it was hard to sing that little song because my anxieties are pretty high, but you know, theirs are too, and that's what's always reassuring. As as bad as things are in our minds, they're also very worried. One of the things they're worried about is water.

Now this is a little ironic considering the absolute horrific, horrifying news out of Texas about the floods, which is a matter of, of course, way too much water. Uh. But I'm not gonna talk about that, I'm gonna talk about lack of water because that is an issue for the industry. It's a huge, huge issue for the industry and I don't think they know what they're gonna do about it.

Alright, this is from the Center of My Plate column by Lisa Keefe on meatingplace.com. Water, Water Nowhere. That's the title of her piece. It starts off with a quote from this guy Rick Teleson.

When you look at the projections of surface and groundwater in, he's talking about Texas, and projected demand for that water, those two lines intersect pretty quickly. Animal agriculture uses unbelievable amounts of water and, a lot of the water we get is from underground reservoirs. They're, they're not gonna last forever, like we're gonna run outta water. It says here, in livestock heavy regions of the Northern Great Plains are seeing dry to severe drought conditions and closer to the border with Mexico, the southern plains range between extreme and exceptional drought. Uh, and, and the most vital aquifers in the country are seeing the waterline drop at a rate of two to seven feet annually.

Among the states that she's talking about are California, which actually has had some improvement, though not nearly enough. Texas, uh, the Lobo flat aquifer's losing 23 inches of water a year. 82% of the state's aquifers overall are in decline. I don't wanna talk through my hat, and I don't, I actually don't think necessarily it's true that the current unbelievable flooding has anything to do with drought.

But the fact is, is that drought and flooding go together because when the, when the land dries out, it's much more prone to flooding when there is, uh, rain. Um, of course this is seems to have been primarily caused by unbelievable amounts of rain, which I don't think even, uh, land that was in good shape could have withstood.

Another state is Idaho, Oklahoma. 82% of the aquifers are declining. More than half of the state's water comes from underground. I mean, they're gonna run outta water. Kansas also, 71% of water comes from groundwater and 65% of its aquifers, it says deepening. I, I assume that doesn't mean they're getting more water in them.

I'm sure it means they're getting less. Um, alright. Of course her concern isn't like, oh my God, the entire country's running out of water, it's what's gonna do to the meat industry. The loss of water, she says, has profound implications for the meat supply chain, from the crops that are grown to feed the animals to that needed to maintain a food safe level of sanitation in the processing plants.

Like she leaves out the fact that the animals drink water, which is another really important reason why, uh, they need water. She suggests that, you know, they need more sustainability policies, like not using a hose as a broom in the, in the facilities.

Well, I mean, that is really good, but this is not gonna fix this problem. It's a lot bigger than that. And then she does say more meaningful innovations are needed. Innovations that could pull water from the air. Oh, that's a good idea. Let's do that at large scale or create crops or process food animals that use less water.

There is at least a little tip of the hat to the fact that animals drink water. Uh, and let's make, make, let's make animals that don't need to drink water. That's a good idea. That'll work. Perhaps the lightning- this is the real kicker- perhaps that lightning rod known as cultivated meat could be part of the answer someday.

Yeah. How about part of the answer right away? I mean, I don't know where we are in cultivated meat. I can never figure it out. It always seems to be at some like super expensive restaurant, and I'll talk about that a little more in a minute, um, somewhere and then it's nowhere. Um, but I don't even know whether it cultivated meat is possible, but this is a pretty strong indication coming from the meat industry that maybe we should get on it and, uh, really make it possible because this is a disaster. Once she's re recommended Cultivated meat, Save the hate mail. Most of the way we live our lives every day is based on technology unimaginable 50 years ago.

So we even see these people in the meat industry acknowledging that this might be the, we don't even know whether this will work, but it might be the only thing that could possibly save us. Unbelievable. Alright, this next article, which is also from meatingplace.com, in the Meat Your Markets column by Matt Graves.

Sustainable Salmon Sushi, Would You Eat It? Yeah, Mac, I think I would, I would at least try it. Um, just to find out, you know. Anyway, he's talking about the fact that, uh, it's now available in this restaurant in Portland, but it's really hard to get into that restaurant. And, it's served with a rice cracker and a bold claim- be the first in the world to taste the future of sustainable seafood.

And, uh, the, you know, we, we reported on this seafood before. It's. It's now available in a rest, a very expensive restaurant in Portland, Oregon. As I said, like, could we get on this? If we're gonna do this, could we do it? If it's the only thing that can save us, could we do it?

He's always been, you know, kind of pretty... i, I'm not sure I would say pro. I think he probably is pro, but he has an audience here. All right, so, uh. He feels that the marketing on this stuff is a hyperbolic stretch in talking about how it's gonna save everything. But quote, it seems to frame the argument as to why consumers should switch from traditional to alternative proteins.

Should we take this announcement by an upscale Portland restaurant as an additional shot across our bow threatening our long-term existence? Yes. Absolutely, yes. Interesting, right? Uh, we can extol the why of beef's traditional 26 month time from conception to consumption versus intensive and in comparison, enormous cost difference of the six week timeframe for lab grown beef, but it is also something we must fear.

Um, so, you know, he's pretty much acknowledging that this would be a lot better if we could get it. But my answer is also no, basically because it, it's a long way off. Well, if you know more money was put into it, it probably wouldn't be a long way off.

However, even with this no, I couch my no answer with the prediction that the costs of alternative meat and poultry products compared to the traditional practices is simply too wide a difference to ignore, not to mention the climate argument. Yeah. Not to mention it. The timeframe for us having to face effective alternative protein marketing is much shorter than any of us will admit. Are you ready?

I'm ready. I am. I'm not even sure I consider it a fix. I just feel like it's a step in the right direction. I mean, will people actually consider to continue to uh, eat meat? If we could ever get them to, to, to actually go vegan and not eat cultivated meat. I don't know. I don't know.

I, I, I understand nothing about why people eat dead animals, um, which is sad since I've been talking about this since the nineties. All right. I haven't figured it out yet! Any day now. Any day. Um, and actually this week's interview with John Sanbonmatsu, his book covers a lot of really interesting thoughts on the why. Some of them really made me think in new directions. Great book.

We haven't recorded that interview yet, but I'm sure it's gonna be a great interview. All right. Um, this is from Watt AgNet. I, I don't know why I'm mentioning this article 'cause it has absolutely no information and it's by Roy Graber. It's just the irony of the way they frame who they are. Ag's David must know in which arena he's fighting Goliath. Uh, and this is, he is really reporting on some business seminar. Fighting for the future of agriculture, everyone's role in shaping the narrative. Are they really talking about agriculture here?

Or are they talking about animal agriculture? I think probably the latter because it was, this seminar was at the recent World Pork Expo in Des Moines, Iowa. Aren't you sad you missed it? Um, alright. Starts out by saying, when people seek to tell that story about animal agriculture, amid the messages shared by adversaries, those in the industry might feel like they are the biblical figure David up against his formidable foe Goliath. Do you believe this? They think they are the David, and who is it who's the Goliaths? Uh, it's probably me. I'm the one they're really scared of.

I don't know? The climate people, the animal rights people. Like who, who are they up against? Uh, people who don't like bacon.

Um, so this panelist at this, uh, this crazy thing is the executive director of the Oklahoma Pork Council and she pointed out how the AgriFood industry is clearly the underdog, so accurate and detailed messaging is needed from as many in the industry as possible.

I just had to share it with you. We know the opposition is great, she said. It's well funded. It's a machine today. Like these people, you know, I think they probably believe it. I think they probably do. Alright. I'm, I'm not gonna say a lot about disease this week. You'll be happy to hear, but I have a couple of reports, uh, something new coming out of Turkey.

They have a new outbreak of foot and mouth disease. It's actually a new strain. Um, and in response they have, uh, temporarily closed all animal sales locations across the country. Uh, you know, foot and mouth disease has in the past caused unbelievable devastation. I remember the days, I don't know, maybe in the aughts when they killed, like just all of the animals in the UK.

Uh, it got a lot of press. I mean, not that they weren't gonna kill them anyway, but it was particularly like ugly. Uh, and of course, you know, all the farmers were terribly, terribly upset 'cause they actually had to do it themselves. Um, this article points out that the highly contagious viral disease primarily affects cloven hooved animals like cattle, sheep, goats, and pigs.

Although not typically fatal, it leads to significant economic losses due to reduced milk production, weight loss, and restricted trade. Well, it is typically fatal because everybody kills them so that they won't spread it, so they get killed in these horrific, horrific ways. Um, and that's how it's fatal, even though they would recover from it if you just let them.

But you know, that's not the kind of thing we do. Alright our second disease update is on bird flu. Now, you might remember it was back in March, RFK Jr and Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins, both expressed interest in letting H5N1 outbreaks spread unchecked through US poultry farms. Um, I don't know whether they're still on that.

I wouldn't be surprised 'cause, 'cause well, RFK I think is crazy as a loon and Brooke Rollins, uh, I don't know that she's crazy, but she's certainly evil. Um, so now, an article has been published, a little slow outta the gate, but a perspective piece authored by a group of virologists, veterinarians, and health security experts- God forbid we should turn to them for information- argue that the plan would not only be ineffective, but could also increase the risk of the virus spilling over on into humans and sparking a new pandemic.

And, uh, that was in the Journal of Science and yeah, I mean, no shit. Even we know that like. Like obviously the more exposure there is to the disease, the more opportunities the disease has to mutate.

You know, didn't we, I keep saying, didn't we just do pandemic 1 0 1 not too long ago? But, uh, I guess it's, I don't know whether they're still thinking that that's a good idea. Bird flu seems to have dropped out of the consciousness a little bit. I guess it's slowed down. You's either slowed down or we're not paying attention.

Alright, I, another thing I'm just gonna mention 'cause I don't understand any of it, but I think it's worth noting that the ag industry is completely thrilled with the Big Ugly Bill, uh, that just passed, the big financing bill, um. From Drover's, The One Big Beautiful Bill Will Boost 2025 PLC Payments.

Here's a per acre breakdown. And PLC is this kind of, um, insurance. This is as much as I, I mean, these articles are very complicated because there's all these different programs. You know, that's what they do when they really don't want people to understand things. They make it very complicated. I'm not saying that's the only reason things get complicated, but it's definitely one of them.

And, um, alright. PLC, which I had to look up. It's like the insurance program. Um, it's price loss coverage and it is part of the agriculture risk coverage. And it's basically one of these programs that the ag industry has developed that, um, you know, heads we win tails you lose, uh, so that they get paid regardless of what happens, which, you know, to a certain extent, farmers need insurance.

Because, you know, bad things happen and we need food and all of that, but it's gotten a little out of hand. But they, they do break it down and listen to the crops that, um, get these potential expanded PLC payments per acre. Corn, soybeans, wheat, sorghum, cotton. Cotton, I don't think is anything they feed to farm animals, though, God knows.

But all the rest of them, of course, they're not Well. They're not, I guess sorghum is pretty much only used for feed in this country, though I eat it. 'cause apparently they eat it all over the world and it's fine. It's good. I mean, it's like any other grain. I make it for breakfast sometimes. Um, but it's mostly used for feed in, in the US.

And then wheat is used for both, soybeans used for both, but mostly feed. Uh, we're the only people eating a lot of soy. And corn, again mostly. There's, there's some, you know, when you see all those fields, it ain't sweet corn, it's feed corn. So all of these are getting more money and you know, for a million other reasons, which are too complicated to go into and any way I don't really understand them.

They're thrilled. And also just another article from um, pork business.com, one of my favorite publications. Uh, America's pork producers celebrate animal health tax safeguards in one big, beautiful bill. They're thrilled. NPPC President, that's National Pork Producers Council of course, Dwayne Staler says this is one of the most consequential pieces of legislation for American agriculture in years. They are thrilled.

There's this whole long list of, um, reasons they're thrilled. I covered the, the, the estate tax exemption, um, last week, which, you know, they're all thrilled about because they all wanna build their dynasties, um, and pass it on to their, to their little ones.

Uh, but aside from that, there's a million ways they're making out like bandits in this bill, so that'll cheer you up. Sorry I don't have better news. Um, you know, I much prefer it when their anxieties are high than when ours are, but, uh, gotta cover both. And that's it for this week's rising anxieties.

Don't forget to tune in Wednesday; we'll be doing The Hen Report. Remember to subscribe, especially on YouTube, even if you don't wanna watch. And that's it. for this week.