Did you know that you are eating daily 3496 liters of water? And by eating I mean literally eating.
There is the visible part of our water consumption: that would be drinking, cooking, washing and the total consumption amounts 137 liters/ day.
And then there is the invisible part:
- The water used for production of industrial products that we use for example for cotton, clothes and paper; this part makes 167 liters/ day
- The production of food that we eat: amounts 3496 liters/day. It means that 92% of water we use is hidden in our food (=VIRTUAL WATER)
Beef production
Let´s take the beef production, it takes an average of 3 years before the animal is slaughtered. One cow makes about 200 kg boneless beef. In three years about 3 091 000 liters of water is needed for the cow including the food, drinking water, servicing farm house and slaughtering process.
That means: 1kg beef= 15400 liters of water
Improvement:
But there is an improvement, the environmental footprint of beef is shrinking due to improvements in raising cattle on grass pasture. Many farmers and ranchers are using new technologies and implementing ways to conserve water.
Almonds:
For one nut 1 gallon (3,8 liters) of water is needed, which sounds wasteful.
Brad Gleason, president of West Hill Farm Services, is a almond and pistachios farmer in California. His statement to the water consumption of almonds: „Drive across the expanse of farmland around us and you´ll be hard pressed to find a puddle. That´s not because of the lack of rain. That´s because of the efficiency of irrigation. Out here, every gallon of water is measured from ditch to drip line.“
To compare:
Beef: 1kg= 15400 liters of water
Goat: 1kg= 960 liters of water
Sheep: 1kg=1462 liters of water
Pork: 1 kg= 1152 liters of water
chicken: 1 kg= 936 liters of water
Beer: 1 gallon (3,8 liters) = 2608 liters of water
Coffee: 1 gallon (3,8 liters) = 3331 liters of water
Tea: 1 gallon (3,8 liters) = 485 liters of water
Wheat: 1 kg= 1000 liters of water
Rice: 1 kg= 3400 liters of water
Potato: 1 kg= 900 liters of water
Cotton: 1 T-shirt = 2700 liters of water
Chocolate: 1 kg= 24.000 liters of water
Cheese: 1 kg= 4546 liters of water
Bread: 1 slice= 40 liters of water
Burger: 0,15 burger= 2500 liters of water