by Alex Cragun

When we think about Earth Day, we often focus on planting trees, cleaning up beaches, or recycling. While important, there’s another critical resource we need to protect: water.

Water is essential to all life, but it’s also one of the most abused resources in the world. Foamy chemical spills and slicked oceans come to mind, but what about factory farming?

Factory farming uses a massive amount of water. In fact, agriculture takes up about 80% of all water used in the U.S., and nearly half of that goes to raising farmed animals, primarily to grow feed crops like corn and soy. And the impact doesn’t stop at water use. Factory farm animal waste is also a major source of pollution.

Factory farms, or CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations), confine thousands of animals in tight spaces. These operations generate billions of gallons of waste every year.

This waste is usually stored in pits or open-air lagoons, which can leak, overflow, or rupture during storms. To get rid of the waste, farms often spray it onto nearby fields—but that runoff doesn't just disappear.

From the fields, the animal waste then contaminates nearby rivers, lakes, and groundwater, causing serious damage:

• Pollutes drinking water with harmful nitrates
• Poisons aquatic life with toxic ammonia
• Introduces drug residues, harmful bacteria, and heavy metals into ecosystems

For example, chicken manure is packed with nitrogen, phosphorus, and ammonia, more than the soil can safely absorb. When it rains, the excess nutrients flow into nearby waterways, damaging ecosystems and threatening public health.

This Earth Day, Compassion in World Farming is asking you to rethink your food choices and consider the hidden water costs and consequences tied to what’s on your plate.

What You Can Do This Earth Day - Go Meat-Free for a Day

One of the simplest actions you can take this Earth Day is to go plant-based, just for a day. Skipping meat for 24 hours can lower your carbon and water footprint. Plant-based food requires far less water than raising animals for meat.

Consider this:

• It takes 1,800 gallons of water to produce a pound of beef.
• That same amount of water produces six pounds of lentils.
• A single meal can reduce your water footprint by hundreds of gallons of water.

Eating more plant-based food reduces the demand for factory-farmed animals, meaning fewer animals are confined in polluting facilities, and less harmful waste ends up in our rivers, lakes, and streams.

This Earth Day, pledge to eat plant-based for just a day. It’s a small change that has a big impact on the environment, on your health, and on your water footprint. Need some inspiration? We’ve got plenty of delicious recipes to help you get started.

• Cauliflower tacos
• Tuna-less salad
• Chocolate energy bites
• Tofu scramble

Step it Up - Sign the End.It Petition

Ready to take your impact a step further? Join thousands of global citizens in calling for an end to factory farming by signing the End.It petition.

Factory farming is one of the biggest drivers of water pollution, climate change, and animal suffering. The End.It campaign is a global movement demanding a more compassionate, sustainable food system – one that respects animals, protects our natural resources, and supports healthier communities.

By signing, you’re lending your voice to a growing call for change:

• To phase out intensive animal farming
• To shift towards sustainable, humane food systems
• To safeguard clean water, public health, and our planet's future

This Earth Day, let’s not just talk about protecting the planet, let's act. Sign the End.It petition and be part of the solution.

Every Bite Counts

Your daily choices are powerful. Use them for the better of the planet this Earth Day.

Alex Cragun has more than a decade of experience in nonprofit government affairs, public policy, grassroots organizing and campaign management. In addition to his work on food system reform, Cragun has a track record of working on issues affecting low-income and historically marginalized communities like healthcare access, food insecurity, voting rights, election law and transportation policy. Cragun centers his career around “doing good work,” by creating and sustaining coalitions, binging communities, and community organizations together through shared interest. Before joining Compassion in World Farming, Cragun was the Director of Government Affairs and Public Policy, US at Mercy for Animals. Cragun has his master’s in public administration from the University of Utah. Cragun is based in Salt Lake City, Utah.