This is just criminal.

And the worst thing is - I actually like burgers!

Kinda makes you want to re-assess your take on the subject.

I have cut down my coffee to just one cup a day purely because it takes so much water to grow the stuff.

this is scary. There are people dying of starvation. Dying of contaminated water... and here we are wasting all these resources for food that wouldn't sustain a man for little more than a few hours.

Steve N. Lee
eco-blog http://www.lionsledbysheep.com

A guinea pig needs about 50-100g of water a day, as well as grass and hay (which also need water- but if on free range then none calculated). One gallon of water is about 4000 grams, or about a gallon of water a month is needed for a guinea pig. Guinea pigs can reach full growth within a year. Thus their 'pure' water needs are only about 12 gallons/pig.

Guinea pig behavior in a grassy field actually increases production of grass, and adds nutrients. The grasslands needed are not high production areas, but dry savanna. Or if using in contained environment, scrap vegetable and loose hay can be easily obtained, and creates valuable compost for use in cultivated fields.

12 gallons, is a lot less than 630 needed for a hamburger, and I would venture a guinea pig at around 2 pounds is more meat as well... not that we should run out and farm cute little guinea pigs, but for thousands of years they have been the micro-cattle of choice in the low resource, low water environment of Peru, and the Andes. Just saying...

I wonder if this is misleading. Does that mean one half pound burger requires 634 gallons of water or that one cow requires, on average, 634 gallons of water before it is slaughtered for a "tasty" hamburger?

Im all about saving water, Im just saying....does it really take that much?

How much of that water is pissed back into the ground and filtered back into the water supply? Or sweated into rain, etc? I have to assume that animals are "water neutral" when you really get down to it.