So, until I ran across an article on Huffington Post about the relationship to water and food production, I literally had NO IDEA that it took so much water to make food. Seriously, mind blown. I mean, looking back on the information logically, it totally makes sense, but I never really gave it much thought.
Basically, the article broke down how much water is needed to make food and drinks that most of us consume regularly. They calculated how much water it takes to produce a pound of each item. The article put it in a sort of competition framework: coffee vs. tea, chocolate vs. vanilla, chicken vs. beef, etc. But, seriously, it all takes quite a bit of water. Honestly, since I don’t live in an area that has huge drought issues, sometimes water conservation isn’t on my mind, but holy buckets people, when you get down to it, we use a lot of water we don’t even realize we are using, just to eat our favorite foods.
Here’s the breakdown {this is to make a pound of the food or drink, and I am not listing all of them, so check out the article for a more extensive list}:
Tea takes 108 gallons.
Coffee takes 1,056 gallons
Chicken takes 518 gallons
Beef takes 1,847 gallons
Rice takes 299 gallons
Pasta takes 222 gallons
Oats take 290 gallons
Almonds take 1,929 gallons
Broccoli, cauliflower, and brussels sprouts take 34 gallons {that seems like a ton on it’s own, but when you compare it to the others, it seems like a pretty good choice}
Olive oil takes 1,729 gallons
Chocolate takes 2,061 gallons {Yikes, my beloved chocolate is one of the worst as far as water goes}
Cinnamon takes 1,860 gallons
Seriously, the list goes on. Does this surprise you? I am totally aware as a gardener that it takes water to grow my produce, but this is a lot of water. Next time I cook up a pound of taco meat, I’ll totally think about how it took 1,847 gallons of water just for us to have tacos. Crazy, I tell ya.
Does this surprise you the way it surprised me?
~Mavis
Madam Chow says
Thing is, crops like chocolate and coffee are from tropical areas, where it literally rains all the time. These crops are not irrigated. I know, I used to live in one of those areas. It rains every day.
PattyB says
I use a lot of mulch and a drip irrigation system. I wish I knew how much water I was saving.
Catherine Foster says
If you want to learn more about agriculture water usage, watch the documentary Last Call at the Oasis. My high-school daughter watched this at school and then had me watch it. Some of it is due to big agriculture practices that could be updated and improved but aren’t.
Leona Burch says
does this list include the water necessary to process the food, transport and market it? A lot of water is used in those processes, too.
Mavis Butterfield says
That’s a great question, the article didn’t really breakdown the water for growing versus the water for transporting, etc. I certainly hope that it includes everything or these numbers would go way up.