And that place is not where we want / need the water to go. I.e into the plants moved elsewhere and into the air carried away. It depletes these waterways
Correspondingly, our hydrologic modelling reveals that cattle-feed irrigation is the leading driver of flow depletion in one-third of all western US sub-watersheds; cattle-feed irrigation accounts for an average of 75% of all consumptive use in these 369 sub-watersheds. During drought years (that is, the driest 10% of years), more than one-quarter of all rivers in the western US are depleted by more than 75% during summer months (Fig. 2 and Supplementary Fig. 2) and cattle-feed irrigation is the largest water use in more than half of these heavily depleted rivers
the water used on farming does not disappear into a vacuum tho, it’s literally recycled into the environment one way or another.
You do not understand water use in farming. Which is fine, go read. But don’t comment on it until you do.
Modern farming uses way too much water in very bad ways.
And that place is not where we want / need the water to go. I.e into the plants moved elsewhere and into the air carried away. It depletes these waterways
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1064&context=wffdocs