We need big-time water efficiency and conservation solutions, and we need them now. The good news is that scientists have found an area of water inefficiency, where a basic change in our habits would free up huge quantities of water. The change? Stop eating meat and other animal products. Even cutting down would significantly save water. David Pimentel of Cornell University points out that while wheat requires 117 gallons of water to produce a pound of food, beef requires 5,165 gallons a pound - a ratio of nearly 50 to 1. That's a lot of water being thrown out unnecessarily. "Cutting the intake of animal products in half and replacing them with highly nutritious vegetable products would reduce the water intensity of the U.S. diet by 37 percent," writes Postel of the Global Water Policy Project. Achieving this by 2025 would save "256 billion cubic meters per year - a savings equal to the annual flow of 14 Colorado Rivers. Many other benefits would result as well - including reduced heart disease, less cruelty to animals and less pollution of streams and bays from industrial animal feedlots." This solution not only results in less freshwater used, but also in more freshwater kept fresh. And it's a solution you can start enacting the very next time you pick up a fork.

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