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The typical American uses 99 gallons of water a day for washing clothes, bathing, toilet-flushing and cooking, and that amount doesn’t even come close to the amount of water used on a daily basis by electrical power plants.

On NPR, Terry Gross interviewed water expert Charles Fishman, author of "The Big Thirst," who says, "The last 100 years has been the golden age of water in the developed world: water that has been safe, unlimited and essentially free. But that era is over. We will not, going forward, have water that has all three of those qualities at the same time: unlimited, unthinkingly inexpensive and safe."
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Update – Science breakthrough: There’s a drug we can give to cows that, instead of being a problem for meat-eating humans, might actually be beneficial to them, because it can help prevent outbreaks of food-borne illnesses caused by a nasty strain of e-coli bacteria. It’s a better cure than beef slime!

Microbiologist Vanessa Sperandio says, “If we can find a way to prevent these bacteria from ever colonizing in cattle, it’s possible that we can have a real impact on human disease.” This is important because an estimated 70 to 80% of the US cattle herds carry the e-coli bacteria. Cooking kills it, but what if you like your beef rare?
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So many antibiotics are being fed to cattle that physiciansare afraid these valuable drugs will stop working forhumans. This is all because when ranchers feedcorn tocattle (whichare grass grazing animals), in order to fatten them up,their stomachs become upset, so they’re given antibiotics.

The Obama administration has announced that it wants to banthe routine use of antibiotics in all farm animals. Poultryand pigs are also fed these medicines on an ordinary basis,whether they actually need them or not.
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Ever since ranchers stopped grazing their cattle, and started fattening them up more quickly with corn, they’ve had to dose them with antibiotics, since cows can’t digest corn easily and it often makes them ill. Corn feeding also produces beef with high levels of cholesterol, unlike grass-fed beef, so corn-fed beef may be one of the causes of heart disease. But the biggest problem is that ingesting so many antibiotics in our food means they no longer work for us when we need them.
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