The Ogallala aquifer is the largest body of fresh water on Earth and lies below some of the richest farmland in the world – the great American grain belt. This water is left from the melted glaciers of the last ice age.
Unfortunately the aquifer cannot replenish it’s water through rainfall as quickly as we are removing it. More than 13 trillion gallons of water are taken from the aquifer every year, with the vast majority used to produce beef.
More water is withdrawn from the Ogallala aquifer every year for beef production than is used to grow all the fruits and vegetables in the whole of the USA.
If man continues to pump out the Ogallala aquifer at current rates, it could be drying out by 2070 – 2080. At that point most of the wells in Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Colorado, and New Mexico will go dry, and portions of these states become scarcely habitable for human beings, let alone food production…
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