Food and water are tied close together.
It’s not just because humans need to eat food and drink water to survive, as common sense suggests. It’s because our food needs water to survive. Say what?
Well, obviously plants and animals need water too.
That’s why 70% of the world’s water usage goes to agriculture. That leaves 30% for us to use. Also, not all food is created equal. That means some foodstuff requires more water to produce than other foodstuff.
For example, 24,000 litres of water is needed to produce a single kilogram (kg) of chocolate.
If you buy 10 of Cadbury’s Winter Wonderland bars, you have already used the amount of water you need to drink healthily for 22 years. And since chocolate is so cheap, there is no reason why people need to think twice before indulging in a box of ferrero rocher (except for weight gain).
And with everyone buying a cup per day, it is no wonder that water shortages are happening. If you’re wondering “What sorcery is this!? What other lies have I been eating??”, you can go to waterfootprint to find out what other foodstuff is water-intensive and unsustainable. It gets worse from here, though. Oh, really, you say? Well, yarly.
Farmers are the ones who create food. Since they are in charge, you would think that they know how much water to use.
The answer is: No, they do waste it. A lot.
You see, the agriculture industry gets a lot of subsidies. That means water is cheaper for them, and they can use huge amounts of it at low prices. That’s fine because we need to eat to survive after all, right?
Well, in 2004, 1 billion litres of water (yes, you read that right), was wasted creating a surplus of food. Surplus, meaning, extra food that isn’t required by us (the people who are buying it).
Food wastage is obviously a well-known problem, but now you know we’re wasting vast amounts of water too. Helps you sleep better at night right?
Time to drop another bomb!
In agriculture, farmers dig ditches to allow all this water to flow to dry parts of land. This helps water the crops.
However, there are a lot of inefficient irrigation practices. Water is being wasted whilst it’s travelling to the crops.
For example in Pakistan, 30%-40% of water is wasted simply due to poor irrigation design.
Now I bet you’ll thrilled to hear that water is not the only thing needed (and over-consumed) in order to produce food. Let’s go into energy now.
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