How to save our lives.

• Author: Griffin, Elle
• Position: EDITOR'S LETTER

THIS MONTH'S FEATURE STORY is about the Great Salt Lake and how we need 7.5 million acre-feet of wafer to fill it to a safe level--"safe" meaning arsenic won't be suspended in our air, as it is now.

We have the water; we're just not letting it reach the lake. The article does a great job laying out exactly what we need to do to remedy this. But I became fascinated by one footnote in the story: that 85 percent of our water goes to agriculture, the vast majority of which is used to grow alfalfa hay for horses and cows.

If isn't practical to say that Americans should stop eating beef, reducing the need for alfalfa, and allowing us to save our water for wiser things like growing vegetables and having plenty left over for our lakes. Nor is it ethical-we need more drastic measures than that.

Still, a pound of beef takes 1,800 gallons of water to make. A pound of...