Water Shortage In Chennai Prompts Pro-Vegan PETA India Billboard

"Raising animals for meat, eggs, and milk uses up 1/3 of the world's fresh water. Go vegan." This is the message, based on the findings presented in a paper published by the reputed Proceedings of the American National Academy of Sciences, on a brand-new People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India billboard that just went up in Chennai, where residents are struggling to cope with a devastating water shortage.

A copy of the billboard ad which has been erected at Butt Road, towards Trade Centre, can be downloaded on their website.

"The meat, egg, and dairy industries are sucking our country dry," says PETA India Vegan Outreach Coordinator Dr Kiran Ahuja. "PETA India's billboard makes the simple point that each one of us can help combat water waste by choosing Earth-friendly vegan meals." 

Between watering the crops that farmed animals eat, providing billions of animals with drinking water each year, and cleaning away the filth from farms, lorries, and slaughterhouses, the meat, egg, and dairy industries put a serious strain on the world's water supply. According to the Water Footprint Network, it takes just 322 litres of water to produce 1 kilogram of vegetables – but it takes 1,020 litres of water to produce 1 litre of cows' milk, 3,265 litres of water to produce 1 kilogram of eggs, and 15,415 litres of water to produce 1 kilogram of beef.

The meat, egg, and dairy industries also use one-third of the world's cropland, which could be used to feed hungry humans – but is instead used to grow food for animals deliberately bred and raised to be used and killed. Animal agriculture is also responsible for more greenhouse-gas emissions than is the transportation sector worldwide.

PETA India – whose motto reads, in part, that "animals are not ours to eat" – opposes speciesism, which is a human-supremacist worldview.