How America’s Diet Is Feeding the Groundwater Crisis | As dinner tables and snack menus feature far more chicken and cheese, farms are expanding where water is scarce.

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How America’s Diet Is Feeding the Groundwater Crisis

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/12/24/climate/groundwater-crisis-chicken-cheese.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Ik0.p1UK.XFL60Fy8wbTa

As dinner tables and snack menus feature far more chicken and cheese, farms are expanding where water is scarce.

How America’s Diet Is Feeding the Groundwater Crisis

These transformations are tied to the changing American diet. Since the early 1980s, America’s per-person cheese consumption has doubled, largely in the form of mozzarella-covered pizza pies. And last year, for the first time, the average American ate 100 pounds of chicken, twice the amount 40 years ago.