Nicholas Kristof apparently wrote this in the New York Times …

… So a single egg takes 53 gallons of water to produce. A pound of chicken, 468 gallons. A gallon of milk, 880 gallons. A pound of beef, 1800 gallons of water…Like most Americans, I eat meat, but it’s worth thinking hard about the inefficiency in that hamburger patty — and the small lake that has dried up to make it possible.”

Like most Americans, I eat meat, but it’s worth thinking hard about the inefficiency in that hamburger patty — and the small lake that has dried up to make it possible.”

… which required multiple corrections on the Best of the Web Today Facebook page, beginning with Moses Lambert …

Any moron who thinks it takes 53 gallons of water to produce an egg is as stupid as a salt block. A chicken starts to lay when it’s about 6 months old. It lays an egg a day. It drinks a couple of cups of water a day.

A dairy cow produces about 8 gallons of milk per day. It would have to drink over 7000 gallons of water per day for Kristof’s statistic to work.

It’s tougher for me to gauge the water the cows drink, because the pond is replenished by the rain and I can’t measure it, but a single beef cow yields about 800-900 pounds and is butchered in about 2 years. The calf would have to drink about 1.5 million gallons of water for Kristof to be correct that it takes 1800 gallons per pound of beef.

I am surprised Nicholas Kristof has enough brain power to breathe on his own, let along draw a paycheck.

… followed by K.C. Jenkins …

How much water do you think it takes to grow the grain to feed a chicken per day? …So a single egg takes 53 gallons of water to produce.” ??? That chicken gets 1.5 lbs per bird per week. Grain crops do use water, BUT THEY DO NOT USE IT UP. They take in water, then most of it is released by its leaves back into the atmosphere, where it ends up as rain, coming down to grow more crops, etc.

… and James Hankins …

The calculations in this article are total rubbish.

… and Mick Wenlock …

well Nicholas “Bag of hammers” Kristof is parroting some things he has read. The essential point that Kristof is missing (because he really is that appallingly stupid) is that it is the *usage* of 53 gallons of water that helps produce the egg. Not the DESTRUCTION of 53 gallons. Somehow he is conflating use with destruction. The amount of water trapped in the production of the egg is, of course, miniscule. Most of the water returns to the environment where it is reused. Even the moisture stored in the egg. It is a deception that environmentalists continue to use because they hope that most people will not actually go “huh?” and think about it.

… and Steve Aucella …

And remember, the Earth is a closed system. We have about the same amount of water now that was here on Day One, more or less. It just moves around all the time.

… and John Hudock:

The more significant point is that nothing really “uses” any water. The earth is pretty much a closed system with respect to water. The water that was here when the first humans started farming is still here. Water gets continuously recycled. Unless there are local drought conditions there is no reason to conserve water at all. Something I wish Al Gore understood before sticking us all with toilets that need to be flushed 3x.

Keep that in mind with the predicted deluge of rain today. (The closed system, not Algore’s low-flow toilets.)