The Water Footprint of a Fast Food Hamburger Is Over 2000 Gallons Per Lb of Beef

The term "water footprint" is used to indicate the amount of fresh water that any given procedure or activeness uses. Growing and processing crops and livestock consumes large quantities of water; therefore, the water footprint of food is high. Animal products, particularly, like meat, dairy and eggs (all of which tend to require more water than fruits, vegetables and beans) accept an even college water footprint. Individually speaking, one'south diet makes up the largest part of one'southward personal water footprint. This is why preventing nutrient waste product individually matters: because discarded food not only wastes the h2o that went into producing information technology, but all other resources involved, as well.

Three Components of Water Footprints

Water footprints were developed by the H2o Footprint Network to assess the amount of water (in unlike types) that is consumed in producing food and other products. Water footprints are equanimous of three separate calculations: ¹

• Blue Water Footprint: The amount of surface h2o and groundwater required (evaporated or used directly) to produce an item. For nutrient, this refers mainly to crop irrigation.
• Dark-green H2o Footprint: The corporeality of rainwater required (evaporated or used directly) to make an item. For food, this refers to dry farming where crops receive just rainwater.
• Grey Water Footprint: The amount of fresh h2o required to dilute pollutants and brand h2o pure plenty to meet EPA h2o quality standards. For nutrient, the h2o would have become polluted from agricultural runoff or leaching from the soil.

H2o, Nutrient and Agriculture

In the United States, agriculture is responsible for 80 per centum of all h2o consumed (through evaporation or other means that remove it from a watershed). ² It takes a surprising amount of h2o to grow and process nutrient, because crops cannot abound without water, especially non without irrigation h2o. In fact, i's diet accounts for more two thirds of one'due south own total water footprint, mostly considering of all the "virtual water" needed to produce 1's food. Virtual water is the "subconscious" component in a production process, which contributes to the total water footprint.

A typical lunch-time meal reveals how speedily virtual water adds up, according to information from the Water Footprint Network. ³   One loaf of bread takes about 240 gallons of h2o to produce, while one pound of cheese takes well-nigh 382 gallons. A simple cheese sandwich adds upwardly to about 56 gallons of water. Add some sliced turkey, and the h2o footprint jumps to 148 gallons. Throw in a small-scale bag of potato chips at 12 gallons and you're up to 160. Include an ice-cold soda at 46, and this typical luncheon took 206 gallons of water to produce.

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The Water Footprint of Beefiness and Other Meat

Pound for pound, meat has a much higher water footprint than vegetables, grains or beans. ⁴ A unmarried pound of beef takes, on boilerplate, 1,800 gallons of water to produce. Xc-eight percent goes to watering the grass, forage and feed that cattle eat over their lifetime. ⁵ Where cattle diet consists mainly of grain-based feed, such as in industrial livestock production, the blueish water footprint is loftier; where their diet consists mainly of grass and forage, the green water footprint is high.

Industrial Beef vs. Pastured Beef

In the United States, at least 80 pct of beef cattle are "conventionally" raised, meaning that they typically spend half-dozen months grazing on pasture, and then they go to a feedlot for four to six months where they consume feed made from corn, soy and other grains. ⁶ While this type of diet speeds up the cattle's growth — a beefiness steer or heifer tin can eat ane,000 pounds or more of feed over a few months — it is non without costs. ^vii With most 29 one thousand thousand caput of beef cattle produced in the US (every bit of 2012), grain is consumed in vast amounts. ⁸

Raising thousands of cattle on confining feedlots has ecological consequences. ⁹ First, there is increased land use to grow the grain required. Also, all those animals collectively generate enormous piles of waste, which must be managed and which frequently end upward polluting waterways. Much of the grain that cattle eat is from irrigated crops. For instance, in 2012, corn product accounted for roughly 25 percent of total United states-irrigated acreage harvested, ¹⁰ while hay and other forage product made upwardly 18 per centum. In add-on, well-nigh irrigated acreage is located in the American plains and western states – regions that experience frequent droughts and h2o scarcity, placing additional burdens on already stressed water supplies. All of this figures into the water footprint of conventional beefiness. ¹¹

Pasture-raised cattle, by comparison, spend their unabridged life eating grass. They typically take 24 to 28 months to reach market weight, because it takes longer for them to gain weight. ¹² Because they rely on grass that is predominantly rain-fed, grass-fed cattle have a higher greenish water footprint, which isn't a problem unless there is a drought that impacts availability of grass. In addition, manure from grass-fed cattle production is typically used as land fertilizer and is role of regenerative agricultural practices in well-managed pasture operations.

The US and Global Water Footprint of Beefiness

Given that the average American eats around 181 pounds of meat annually, it is easy to see how meat consumption might account for so much of an American'south water footprint. ¹³ In fact, American meat consumption is nearly iii times that of the global average. ^fourteen Worldwide consumption of meat and animal products makes up 27 percent of humanity's full water footprint. ^xv Of that full, 98 pct is due to the h2o required to produce animal feed, while h2o for drinking, cleaning and feed mixing constitutes merely ane.1 percent, 0.8 percent and 0.03 percent, respectively. ¹⁶

How and Where Food Comes from Impacts a Person's Water Footprint

Diets made up of highly processed foods — similar packaged snacks and ready-fabricated meals – also utilise a lot of h2o. ¹⁷ For case, ounce for ounce, irish potato chips have a college water footprint than whole potatoes. ¹⁸ Afterward growing the potatoes (which uses the most water), it takes more water to clean the potatoes and the processing machinery, plus fifty-fifty more h2o for producing cooking oil for deep frying, producing fuel for delivery and packaging the production. This quantity of water — that incorporates growing, processing, cooking, packaging and transport — is known equally "virtual water."

Where food is grown tin also impact a person's water footprint. California, for instance, produces more food than whatever other US state, supplying a large role of the land'southward milk, beefiness, produce and basics. ^{19 20} Information technology is also one of the nation's driest states and recently experienced a drought of historic proportions. Equally a consequence, California'due south agricultural sector puts enormous strain on the water supplies of the entire southwest, mainly through its allotments from the Colorado River, which it shares with other states. A significant portion of that express water supply is so "shipped" equally virtual water when they export almonds or alfalfa (for animal feed) to other states or countries, like Nihon and China. ^{21 22} Likewise, when nutrient is shipped from other states and countries, it taps into distant water supplies. Every bit global trade increases the amount of nutrient that is moved around the planet, these calculations go of import indicators of the actual amount of water used to go these foods to peoples' plates.

Transporting nutrient over long distances also requires large quantities of fuel, which pollutes the air, contributes to climatic change and uses huge volumes of water. Producing gasoline and other transportation fuels requires water: about three/4 gallon of water is needed to produce plenty gasoline to drive one mile. ²³

In short, agronomics has a pregnant impact on water resources; and while people'southward private water footprints volition never approach zero, the more than meat, dairy and candy foods each of usa consumes, the more than water nosotros use and the higher our water footprints. That is why it is of import to understand how the various components of water footprints for a particular food detail are calculated.

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Source: https://foodprint.org/issues/the-water-footprint-of-food/

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