I thought water use was only bad when AI did it

Off the back of that event, the British Meat Processors Association (BMPA) called for processing sites to have “continuous access to water, irrespective of wider pressures on local supplies”. Water companies are currently required by law to prioritise households over businesses during shortages. The request remains unresolved

I think that is a pretty sensible law and should remain unchanged. I could potentially see an argument for food production being given a priority above some less important things though, like a golf course or car wash. But then that could also open up considerations of which parts of food production? Some foods use orders of magnitude more water than others, meat generally being the most inefficient option.

You could eat the grain that would have been given to the chickens and then you don’t even need a meat processing facility and don’t need to bother growing most of the grain.