Read about the Colorado river’s drought crisis: how bad can it get; what communities, lives, and species are at stake if the river keeps drying up; what’s within our power to change; and what innovations and adaptations are we embracing to save ourselves. bit.ly/3N4C8dV

I live in Colorado and 95% of my residential water bill goes towards watering my lawn, which is required by the HOA. It's ridiculous. There should be city regulations in place to make developers use native drought resistant landscaping and avoid this massive waste.

whoever's idea it was to do the little diorama pieces instead of an animation, and to whoever made them - excellent work

You forgot to mention that a field of alfalfa will consume more water than other crops and farmers are picking it specifically for that because in their water rights agreements if they use less water it means that next year their water allocation is reduced.

really frustrating when 80-90% of media coverage is on residential + commercial usage when 80-90% of the usage is agriculture. refreshing (ha!) to see a video which helps get to the core of the conservation issue.

Wow it’s almost like they are growing crops that aren’t evolved to grow in the desert in the middle of a desert…

65% of the water in Utah goes to alfalfa. This makes up about 1% of the State's GDP. Center pivot uses 900gal/minute. Utah has not given up on the Lake Powell Pipeline. The State has only pushed back the Bear River Project which would lower the Great Salt Lake even more. Utah has the lowest water rates in the Nation. Utah is the 2nd driest State.

Well done. My take away is that rather than being held hostage by the evergreen growers, we need to regulate the market better and dis-incentivize the activity. Levy higher export tariffs, higher water costs, or ? It seems a strange thing, watering the desert, to grow a crop we don’t directly eat.

Saudi Arabia: _We're going to cut OPEC production so prices increase_ Also Saudi Arabia: _We bought land in Kingman, AZ so we can grow alfalfa to export back to the Kingdom. To do this we will pump as much groundwater as we want since Arizona has no laws restricting the pumping of groundwater_ The United States: _Ok no problem_

People will look back at our times and shake their heads. Producing an excessive amount of meat from plants grown in the desert and thereby rendering entire regions uninhabitable during the accelalerating climate crisis is the perfect example of what's wrong with our way of doing things.

Paying for not using water seems so odd... Just regulate it properly. Some of the businesses are just not feasible anymore.

Wow, it's absolutely shocking how humans create convoluted strategies to problems when the simplest, most effective solution was glossed over in a few seconds in this video. I don't know when people are going to realise that we either have to make the tough decisions ourselves or the climate is going to make it for us. Nevermind, it's already doing that

It’s unfortunate they barely even mention how helpful it would be for everyone to reduce the amount of meat they consume. I stopped eating meat almost exactly one year ago after 42 years of eating meat daily. My diet now is diverse and delicious, I’ve lost 70 pounds and am now at my ideal weight, and have eliminated every health issue I had. I was scared to stop eating meat and thought it would be impossible. It took me months to even start trying. But it’s literally the best thing I’ve done for myself in my entire life, and I know it’s better for our planet too. Watch the documentary Forks Over Knives and if nothing else, consider making the change for your own benefit.

The video mentions that alfalfa is a crop that humans don't eat, but the second largest water consumer, corn, also doesn't really feed humans. It's mostly for livestock feed and ethanol. A small percentage does feed humans in the form of high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, corn meal, corn starch, etc often found in junk foods. Quite the system we've created here.

This was a BEAUTIFULLY shot video! Major compliments to the team who planned this :)

"...but I like cheeseburgers... so here's some complicated economic solution that's not going to work instead" It's so weird how people shut their brains off when faced with insurmountable evidence that they need to change.

Fallowing is basically just paying a ransom to farmers for a fair share of water. The farmers aren't paid with money manifested from thin air. There are more water efficient farming methods that can be used, such as direct-burial drip irrigation systems, indoor or greenhouse hydro/aquaponics, rainwater swale irrigation, etc. The solution isn't to pay rural farmers a ransom, it's to help fund them changing over to a more sustainable method of water utilization.

Being in Vegas, we were taught our usage impacted everything. It’s a literal drop in the bucket. We still lead water conservation. This is helpful research.

Oh no certain people might lose their jobs! Well if water runs out there are going to be a lot worse problems!

I have to say, I love the diorama. Seeing things laid out in such a simple, straightforward way is so nice.

Very well constructed video. I believe every high school student should have a yearly class where they make these. They would improve their tech, communication, research, writing, speaking, art, and many other skills immensely!

It's almost like it was a bad idea to turn the desert into a farm 🤔

Well. What about not to grow in deserts?

I hope every media company can start to be HONEST about the major users of water and the impact that reducing red meat consumption can have. Thanks for making this!

Water heavy crops should only be grown in areas that get plenty of water, simple as. Grow the alfalfa in places like Western Washington, Oregon, and the East Coast. It doesn't have to be farmed in California.

This is such an important topic, and I'm glad Vox has taken it on. As a resident of the West, I see my environment changing rapidly around me in ways that are downright terrifying, yet with limited recognition from those in charge around here. What sticks in my mind is: "what happens when millions of people, either by choice or by necessity, must leave the West and call someplace else home?". Who will be able to make that choice, and how will we support those unable to make that choice? The issue of water in the West is not limited to just the western United States, its likely to affect the entire country as well as how we expect to manage environmental issues of similar magnitude as they present themselves to us around the world in the coming years. And they will undoubtedly present themselves.

EVERY well-made documentary about human enviromental impact follows roughly the same story: 1) You were told that cutting your consumption on [this resource] is neccessary to save the Earth 2) Actually residental usage counts to below 10% of all consumption. 3) Big business / agriculture / industry / military is responsible for the other 70-90% 4) Nobody really seems to care, regulate or even talk about it Seriously, I'm more and more sure that the most enviromentally concious decisions we can made is to just buy things which are made in sustainable way. To vote with your wallet And even then it's HARD, because estimating enviromental impact is way out of scope for everyday consumer and companies will try to sell absurd ideas like "our cruise ships take 30% less fuel than decade ago therefore they are eco-friendly"

I think that other crops need to be considered for feeding cattle. Clover and other cereal grasses are more resistant to drought and moisture loss. I have also heard that a lot of the property is owned by foreign companies and individuals - so essentially the water in the Southwest is largely being exported along with the feed.

I'm very surprised that you didn't mention the lack of a coordinated federal response, leading to landowners deliberately choosing to maximize their water usage by growing alfalfa due to their allocated water rights being based on "use it or lose it" laws in some states, and municipalities like St. George, UT insisting that they can be golf course destinations based on how much water they have been allocated-- never mind that that water no longer exists. Sad that it's taken this long for the feds to get serious about this disaster.

They've been knowing about water shortages for 20yrs and still haven't done anything

This is painfully true. I live in the Imperial Valley, CA and it's named after the local power and water utility company Imperial Irrigation District which has a monopoly over everyone here. Farmers use most of the water here to grow hay/alfalfa and they have the audacity to ask everyday customers to save. There are numerous solar panel facilities viable on the way to San Diego all of which the electricity is sold to other cities outside our own county. The people with power cater to the farmers 1st and the people 2nd, humans aren't eating hay so why the need to plant 100s of fields for it?

Here in Arizona, the state (aka our greedy governor) has lease a ton of land and water for a Saudi Arabian company to grow alfalfa for themselves. It’s irritating that the politicians in these states that are at the biggest risk for a water crisis only seem to care about profit in the short run rather than water conservation.

I would love to see another version of this video done where they are mining for all the lithium batteries. For some articles are saying that they go through 22 million liters of water per day to produce lithium batteries. Great video!

A whole lot goes into cattle. It’s clear that people aren’t going to give it up as easily. But even if the US cuts their consumption down, around to the global average, that could do a whole lot to help

I have traveled a lot through the American west and the wanton waste of water from alfalfa farmers is incredible. You frequently see spray irrigation running at high noon in the desert. Probably more than 90% of the water evaporates. Such a waste of resources.

US has far too much reliance on meat. Cattle industries are heavily subsidized. That's why fast food is so cheap and convenient, and why salads are so expensive. We need a shift in subsidies to support plant agriculture for human consumption over animal agriculture, and a cultural shift away from beef-heavy diets.

Well presented. I've been guilty of heavy beef consumption my entire life -until three weeks ago when the Cardiologist sat me down at 41 yrs old, to discuss my 2nd Heart CT scan results....

You had me until the very end, where the solution is supposedly to pay for farmers to maybe if they want not grow some of one type of crop. That is not at all a solution, and you already explained why in the video.

I’m very familiar with dairy products. Between the hay, corn for the cows(cow corn is different than people corn..they don’t use any pesticides basically less work and gets used in their feed) , cows drinking water, and then production and all that goes into that, flushing the lines multiple times, cleaning the tankers, the filler for bottles, and all around cleaning that goes into production and keeping the cows in a good environment, it takes a tremendous amount of water and effort

Showing the people dispensing and essentially moving around the water in the different sizes of glasses is a good nod to how we move around water currently to meet our demands in this economy. Well done.

This should be trending. The visuals were so well done and informative!

I live in Utah. Our state governor owns an alfalfa farm, and last year he told us to "pray for rain" amidst drought. Lots of state govt corruption here is making everything worse...

I'm from Michigan, where we have a ton of water and I remember going to Moab, Utah on July one summer and I was amazed that every house had a green lawn in front of it. It was the middle of the desert and their lawns were much greener than our lawns in Michigan where we had plenty of water to do so! That was 2003 so I don't know if it's changed but I thought those people we're nuts, wasting water in a way most people even in water-rich Michigan don't.

We need to be thinking about long term, sustainable agriculture and diet, not paying people not to work.

This has to be the shortest, sweetest most informational video on KZfaq Kids in school should watch this. It’s only five minutes.

I'm from SE Asia and I never understood the need to water lawns. If its dry season we just let them turn brown. They will grow back once the wet season starts.

And what’s worse is that some farmers use it at subsidized rates. A few years ago, in Arizona, Ducey’s government signed a deal with a Saudi company where they could tap into groundwater at rates well below market level.

You guys are making some great content. Keep it up!

Did that grown man just say cheeseburgers are his favourite food? 🤣🤣

How about we ban growing the crops that take up 1/3 of the water in the drought stricken region? There are a other areas of the country where they could be grown and not affect the water table so drastically.

Don’t forget how the large soda companies use their access to fill tanker trucks from residential water facilities, then bottle it and sell it as bottles water for profit.

Another important aspect is how inefficient current watering practices for a lot of crops are. Such as center pivot, one of the methods shown in the video, is terribly inefficient. This method allows good portion to not actually water the plant bc of evaporation and other factors. Drip irrigation is much more efficient but more expensive but I’d rather spend a bit more on the system than have no water at all. Like y’all said, It’s gonna be a hard sell to have people change their diets but improving the systems of how we grow it could make a big difference.

Alfalfa Farmer here- just wanted to drop my two cents. The west grows so much alfalfa for several reasons. 1. Climate: Alfalfa has a deep tap root and can be very drought tolerant. It does require a lot of water but it is also one of the most productive crops on the planet. If you compare pounds produced per gallon of water used you will find that alfalfa is not a wasteful crop. Alfalfa also is extremely difficult to grow in areas that receive a lot of rainfall. It has to dry in the field for 3-7 days after being cut before it can be baled. If rain falls on the hay after it has been cut it loses a drastic amount of nutrients and begins to mold. This is why the desert is a perfect place to grow alfalfa. (Alfalfa is also native to the Middle East, so it is much more at home in the desert than many human food crops are). 2. Cattle: What most people don’t realize is that much of the nations beef supply begins with ranchers in the west. In the west, there are millions and millions of acres that are not suitable for crop production but they can still be used to produce beef. During the spring and summer months cattle graze and raise their young, utilizing land that is only useful for grazing. The winter months require hay to be fed in much of the west, hence the need for alfalfa and hay production. Because of the bulk nature of alfalfa it cannot be shipped long distances super efficiently, so it makes more sense to grow it close to where it is needed. 3. Economics: It is very difficult to get an accurate measurement of the economic impact of alfalfa. This is because the vast majority (in my area, about 90%) of alfalfa is grown and fed to cows on the same ranch. Because there is no point of sale, it’s very difficult to correctly value alfalfa’s contribution to state economies. But I feel comfortable in stating that 95% + of all cattle in the USA are fed alfalfa at some point, for many of them it is the sole source of nutrition in the winter. I’m not attempting to change anyone’s mind, the numbers in this video don’t lie. But it is worth considering that cattle production in the west is an extremely efficient use of range and forest not suitable for crop production, and that the arid regions where alfalfa is grown are almost perfectly suited to alfalfa. Alfalfa thrives where other crops might struggle, so in that sense it’s worth asking if alfalfa is really all that wasteful, even if it isn’t directly used to feed humans.

If all alfalfa farms used sprinklers instead of flood irrigation that would save 3/4 of the water runoff, I live next to an alfalfa field and once they open the gate to flood irrigate for the first 8-15 hours water is not flowing onto the field it is being drained right into the drain ditch so even if they blocked the water runoff while flooding the field they could save 1/2 of it from bypassing the field and going straight into the drain.

im not saying to cut out all meat, but americans seriously need to have less dependency on meat and dairy in their diet, more fruits, vegetables and grains, my friend visited the states and felt sick after a week because she struggled to find anywhere that served fresh fruit and vegetables instead of fast food

thank you! as someone who lives in the west, this is exactly what I wished more people knew about.

This is a pricing problem. The cost of water usage (drying out an entire region) needs to be reflected in prices. It will be less profitable, companies will raise prices to consumers, and we’ll consume less.

I knew agriculture would be the biggest culprit. You cannot grow lettuce and carrots in a desert without an ungodly amount of water. It was all a mirage that should never have happened.

It’s always struck me as ironic that our most critical resource is basically unmanaged.

The best solution isn’t to cut back personal water use, it’s to solve the problem and build water desalination plants along the west coast.

Great tenor and pace in this. Despite the bluntness of the problem, we aren't bludgeoned with the facts. Touché!

Farmers grow Alfalfa because they want to hold onto their water rights / amounts because they know if they use less their quotas will be cut and they might not get it back

Once again a great short documentary. The visuals in your videos are always simple and on point, yet very well made. And the all thing is well documented while being efficiently vulgarized and explained (speaking as a foreigner with very limited skills when it comes to the English language). The content of the video in itself is of course much less pleasing :(

There's another water waste that might be worth looking into. Evaporation. The truth of the matter is, certain land geometries reduce evaporation. It's like if you get a towel soaking and just throw it on the floor in a mound. It'll stay wet, particularly in the middle for quite a while. Compare that to laying a wet towel on the floor... it'll stay wet quite a bit longer, but since it's right up against the floor, the bottom tends to stay wet (since there isn't great air circulation under the towel). Compare that to hanging the towel on the line, and it will dry EXTREMELY fast. It's got both sides of the towel exposed to air, and the air is free flowing. So how can this be done in the West to conserve water? Well, you want to somehow do 2 things. 1. You want to get the water from where it falls to where it pools as quickly and efficiently as possible. 2. You want to reduce the air flow as much as possible. One way you can do this is by planning farms runoff better. They need their rainfall, of course... there's no getting around that, but much of their rainfall just evaporates anyway. If you strategized channels to drain to the nearest aquifer as quickly as possible, you will not only save evaporation and replentish aquifers, but you will also potentially have an underground well to pump from and water your plants more regularly.

It's stunning to realise that beef/dairy accounts for more than twice the water consumption of the entire Western US Residential, Commercial and Industrial sector But instead of asking ppl too completely get off a beef/dairy diet, wouldn't it be better to have them reduce their consumption by a fourth or a third??? That would be enough water savings to cater to the entire Residential OR Commercial/Industrial sector The only way to do that though is to put a tax surcharge on beef/dairy. That way, if a family budgets $400 a month for beef/dairy, now they only get 3/4th of the quantity for that money. The earned income by the State could go towards things like fallowing....🤔

Can I just say I love these presentation from Vox so much ! This is what video all about, visual to reality. And a little bit touch of art. Perfection.

Utahn here- my family owns an alfalfa field. Water here is all about shares. Water shares. You either buy a share or lease a share. Water is in two categories- agriculture and residential. We lease water shares from farmers who own “extra shares” if there’s extra water. Our field has been fallow for 3 years now bc we can’t get the water shares- all the farmers are selling residential shares. They can sell residential for more money than agriculture shares for us. Farmers are now selling left and right to house developers, who then bring in more residential lots so it’s even less likely to get agri shares. To all those saying that farmers should pay- we do. Water is expensive and breaking even from all the expenses is rare. The less green space, the more houses built, the more roads and asphalt,the hotter it gets. I’m not saying that farming is not part of the problem bc it is, but farmers aren’t the villains here. We’re struggling. We grow food to feed the cows that you eat. Also, the farmland is slowly being pushed out to most hostile regions by suburban sprawl. We’re in a viscous cycle that keeps getting worse.

If only there was some kind of plant they could eat that grows just from rain and sunlight

Apparently we’re in a drought and we are limited to watering our lawn. My local hospital has an enormous beautiful green lawn which I waters almost daily.

My well gives me 3 gallons a minute(residential permit). Yet I use maybe ten gallons a day. I have fish pools, but they are also covered and protected from evaporation. Then my overflow goes into a drip system and nutrients for other edible landscaping. It’s soooo much setup and labor. Once the system is operating though, it’s easy to maintain. I like beef, all my county (orphan co) is bovine, but it’s becoming more necessary to diversify. Thanks for reading.

Interestingly some of these deserts weren't deserts a 150 years ago. Understanding how ecology and farming can work hand in hand will be our only way forward.

Interesting point. I wonder if that water usage breakdown holds true for every region or water basin though. It would be interesting to see that.

I love the video presentation. Easy to understand, informative and presentation is really great 👍🏻

Selfishness is a national trait of America. None of them are going to give up even the smallest convenience without a fight. That includes beef.

Great info, but one key highlight that always baffles me.... Mass water intensive agriculture in a DESERT, like doesn't head make people scratch their heads in confusion is always beyond me.

It is very alarming that people - including the professor featured in this video - genuinely, blindly act as if their taste buds are more important than keeping their home habitable. If the people who study the consequences of this behavior for a living can't be assed to switch to Impossible burgers, I have very little hope for humanity's ability to avert climate catastrophe. When your tap runs dry and you inevitably become a climate refugee, will all those cheeseburgers have been worth it?

In Colorado, summer water demand is 4x winter demand. That's how much water goes to keep Kentucky blue grass alive in a high plains desert.

Next step: lab grown beef, and protein crickets.. On serious note: they need to have way more vertical farms (it saves like 90% of the water used).. I'm sure billy gates will be doing that in the near future while owning the most farm land in the US

I love that policy that determines whether or not humans can survive is swayed by the persuasive argument "BUT I WANNNNT ITTTTT!"

I had to go dairy and beef free for my health, but it's the same decision either way: do I want to leave a better world for my kids (one where I'm in it) or not?

Where is the segment discussing use it or lose it clauses? I think it is pretty essential to descuss when talking about why farmers use so much water.

Shout out to the art director here! Nicely done.

Fallowing just sounds like holding water hostage for ransom. What I want to know is, are we talking about local farms or are these farms owned by mega corporations that are trying to meet a bottom line?

In this California drought year today is the October 1 beginning of the rainy season and at my home on the beach in Northern California our reservoir if over 90% capacity and my own rain gauge gathered a little over 33 inches of rain in the past year. We spent a year traveling 40,000 miles through 11 states looking for our retirement home and partially due to NASA, NOAA, and US Navy data we garnered reading An Convenient Truth we settled here. We could not be happier after 6 years of rainfall. Location, location, location.

We grow very little alfalfa in Missouri by comparison but have robust beef production. But we have a seasonal cycle we have to respect.

20 years into a drought: _"Hey guys, should we conserve water ?"_ The next asteroid can't come soon enough.

As I've said before the western water compact is a huge issue it was made 100 years ago and one of the things that needs to be redone. Also better irrigation practices. Obviously growing food in the desert is weird to begin with.

We need to stop subsidizing beef for fast food restaurants. It's fast food. Those prices are completely unattached to the reality of the costs.

Agriculture in the middle of the desert wasn't a good idea

Doesn't growing crops in the desert require more water than not growing in a desert? Whose idea was it to start farms in a desert?

If we replaced the cow feed with vegetables we eat, would the water consumption be higher or lower? Which plant requires the least amount of water for the most calories?

this didn't surprise me. I live in a town that is known for providing the world with vegetables. they have the sprinklers going off in the middle of the day not even spraying the plants.

This does not take into account that most bees currently survive on alfalfa to make honey. Where will we be without the bees?

I think using “smart irrigation” techniques such as automated valves that open and close on their own or water recycling and reuse systems would help farmers save a lot of water. Even something as simple as fixing leaky pipes would conserve water

Just a few years ago I couldn't ever think cows and cattles cause lots and lots of problems that each has a huge impact on our lives and earth. Our water, our air, weather temperature, shores, lands and etc.

My California city just had a humungous cattle ranch sold to the State of California that will be used for mixed use of water rights and indigenous Ohlone practitioners.

Amazing video ,Great story telling ,from problem statement to inference

Eating ourselves to death seems to mean something else in this context.

There are so many signs telling us to gradually shift our diets towards plant-based... Unfortunately there's little incentive for companies to encourage that, since it would decrease their production.

Subsidies to not use water?!!!! How about exercising eminent domain and forcing farming corporations to sell the land to the Federal government for fair market value and leasing it back to them if and when water is available? How about not using our water to ship grains to countries with little to no civil rights or women's rights? How about the farming corporations buy land where there is water and ship the meat and produce to areas without water? How about agreements with states with water but less sunshine to allow water rites to sunshine states that provide meat and produce. So many solutions but to pay corporations to not use water ... Shameful