The IPCC
report
released last month painted a harrowing picture of the continuing climate
crisis, but also delivered dire news for the related water crisis. In a
significant departure from the last report released in 2013, the latest models
indicate that many of the droughts we are seeing can be highly correlated with
human activity. Not only that, but these droughts are actually getting worse —
bringing
heat
as well as lack of water.
This, of course, is bad news for everyone and everything. But the food sector,
inextricably tied to the weather cycle, is in real danger if changes do not
start immediately to address this trajectory. We don’t have to guess how these
new drought models would play out on the ground — we are getting a glimpse of it
happening in real time this summer.
The disaster unfolding right now in the Western US makes this crystal clear.
This historic
drought
— the worst in 20 years — is combining with a climate-driven mega heatwave in a
punishing feedback loop that is driving down precipitation and draining critical
water supplies — such as the Colorado River reservoir Lake
Mead,
which last
month
was classified as having significant water shortages for the first time ever.
As the drought intensifies and spreads and reservoirs and rivers continue to
drop, states aren’t just cutting back water used to raise animals — they’re also
cutting water used to grow the crops that feed
them.
Across the West, a third of all surface
water is used to grow crops
to feed beef and dairy cattle. In the Colorado River Basin, it’s 50 percent.
Preserving rice for generations to come through regenerative water-use practices
Hear how Mars and its Ben's Original brand are working with Delta Harvest to greatly reduce water use in rice cultivation while improving crop yields, at the SB Regenerative Ag Summit — Thursday, Oct. 17, at SB'24 San Diego.
The meat business is built around water supplies that — once taken for granted —
are increasingly precarious. The drought has stunted the corn and soy needed to
feed their herds, driving up the price of feed beyond what is financially
feasible for producers. Across the Great Plains and West, ranchers are
selling
off
portions of herds they have built up for years, often at fire-sale prices, just
to stay in business. Some meat and dairy producers are turning to
groundwater
to meet their water needs, creating conflict as the communities fight over this
limited resource. All of these shortages affect the cost of food all the way
down the value chain, driving up
prices
for consumers.
Produce farms are experiencing cutbacks as well, forcing farmers either to go
fallow or turn to groundwater resources.
The food sector has not been blind to these distributing changes — many of the
food giants around the world have made big, bold commitments to tackle climate
change. Yet at the same time, many are dropping the ball on the water crisis.
Over the past few years, Ceres and global investor network FAIRR teamed
up with investors
who manage more than $11.4 trillion in assets to step up the pressure on
fast-food giants McDonald’s, Domino’s, Restaurant Brands
International, Yum! Brands, Wendy’s and Chipotle. Investors have
asked these companies to mitigate the water risk in their supply chain by
pushing their meat suppliers to reduce their water scarcity and pollution risks.
Yet in a recent progress
report,
only Wendy’s and Yum! Brands — which owns KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco
Bell — have set targets to address their water impacts. Even then, the scope
and scale of those efforts is limited. Only half of the engaged companies have
disclosed any assessment of water risks in their direct operations, with
McDonald’s being the only one to conduct a risk analysis of water in its beef
supply chain.
Time is running out for meat companies — and the restaurants and retailers that
depend on them — to take water risk seriously. The predictability of water
resources on which the food sector has relied for so long is a thing of the past
— storms, droughts, and elevated water risk are now the norm. Now is the time
for these companies to get serious and step up their actions to manage our
threatened water supplies.
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Published Sep 13, 2021 8am EDT / 5am PDT / 1pm BST / 2pm CEST