For some numbers:
One graph even has California's animal feed water usage so large it actually goes off the chart at 15.2 million acre-feet of water (it is distorted to make it fit as it notes). For some comparison, the blue water usage of animal feed is larger than all of almonds water usage of ~2 million acre-feet of water
https://pacinst.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/ca_ftprint_full_report3.pdf#page=25
EDIT:
If the image isn't loading for you, here's a direct link: https://i.imgur.com/EjVps9Z.png
EDIT 2:
Also worth noting is that per liter, dairy milk requires 628.2 L of freshwater vs almond milk requiring 371.46 L of freshwater. And if you use something like oat milk instead that gets you to 48.24 L
If I promise to switch to oat milk, can I keep the cheese?
I mean any switch is doing something. People who try to switch everything completely all at once end up failing a lot because it's overwhelming.
There are some good almond and cashew cheeses though, and now they can make non animal whey that is chemically equivalent to dairy whey... So identical cheese is coming. They already have identical non animal cream cheese and ice cream
yeah I'm not sure what I can do about milk/cheese. We've actually been mostly beef & pork free (from grocery) for several years, replacing with poultry, beans, and some fish.
but milk? man that's tough. we have kids, and we go through a lot of milk. oat milk would be expensive as a 1:1 replacer. small steps!
If you don't do any meatless meals I highly recommend it for saving money. Our grocery bill would be insane right now if we ate as much meat as we used to. My go to is stir fry with an egg on top or a soup/stew. Dont even miss the meat cause it's so flavorful even without it
Cheese has 5 times the waterfootprint of dairy milk.