By MADELYN BECK • MAR 4, 2020
“As water becomes more scarce in the Mountain West, a new analysis finds that a surprising amount is being used to raise cattle.
“Researchers at Northern Arizona University worked with an international team to map where Western water starts and where it ends up in cities. It found that nearly half of all water consumption in the West either went directly to cows or watered crops to feed cows…
“But the study, published this week in the journal Nature Sustainability, also offers a solution: pay more farmers to leave fields temporarily dormant, or fallow…”