It takes 21 litres of water

to produce a small
chocolate bar. How water-
wise is your diet?

October 6, 2019
Author

1. Brad Ridoutt
Principal Research Scientist, CSIRO Agriculture, CSIRO

Our diets can have a big environmental impact. The greenhouse gas
emissions involved in producing and transporting various foods has been
well researched, but have you ever thought about the water-scarcity
impacts of producing your favourite foods? The answers may surprise
you.

In research recently published in the journal Nutrients, we looked at the

water scarcity footprints of the diets of 9,341 adult Australians, involving
more than 5,000 foods. We measured both the amount of water used to produce a food, and
whether water was scarce or abundant at the location it was drawn from.

The food system accounts for around 70% of global freshwater use. This means a concerted effort
to minimise the water used to produce our food - while ensuring our diets remained healthy -
would have a big impact in Australia, the driest inhabited continent on Earth.

Biscuits, beer or beef: which takes the most water to

produce?
We found the average Australian’s diet had a water-scarcity footprint of 362 litres per day. It was
slightly lower for women and lower for adults over 71 years of age.

A water-scarcity footprint consists of two elements: the litres of water used, multiplied by a
weighting depending on whether water scarcity at the source is higher or lower than the global
average.

Foods with some of the highest water-scarcity footprints were almonds (3,448 litres/kg), dried
apricots (3,363 litres/kg) and breakfast cereal made from puffed rice (1,464 litres/kg).

In contrast, foods with some of the smallest water-scarcity footprint included wholemeal bread
(11.3 litres/kg), oats (23.4 litres/kg), and soaked chickpeas (5.9 litres/kg).

It may surprise you that of the 9,000 diets studied, 25% of the water scarcity footprint came from
discretionary foods and beverages such as cakes, biscuits, sugar-sweetened drinks and alcohol.
They included a glass of wine (41 litres), a single serve of potato crisps (23 litres), and a small bar
of milk chocolate (21 litres).

These foods don’t only add to our waistlines, but also our water-scarcity footprint. Previous studies
have also shown these foods contribute around 30% of dietary greenhouse gas emissions in
Australia.

Sheep drink from a dried-up water

storage canal between Pooncarie and
Menindee in western NSW. Water
shortages along the Murray Darling
Basin have devastated ecosystems and
communities.

Dean Lewins/AAP

The second highest food group in terms of contributing to water-scarcity was fruit, at 19%. This
includes whole fruit and fresh (not sugar-sweetened) juices. It should be remembered that fruit is
an essential part of a healthy diet, and generally Australians need to consume more fruit to meet
recommendations.

Dairy products and alternatives (including non-dairy beverages made from soy, rice and nuts)
came in third and bread and cereals ranked fourth.

The consumption of red meat - beef and lamb - contributed only 3.7% of the total dietary water-
scarcity footprint. These results suggest that eating fresh meat is less important to water scarcity
than most other food groups, even cereals.

How to reduce water use in your diet

Not surprisingly, cutting out discretionary foods would be number one priority if you wanted to
lower the water footprint of the food you eat, as well as the greenhouse gas emissions of
production.

Over-consumption of discretionary foods is also closely linked to weight gain and obesity. Eating a
variety of healthy foods, according to energy needs, is a helpful motto.

Aside from this, it is difficult to give recommendations that are relevant to consumers. We found
that the variation in water-scarcity footprint of different foods within a food group was very high
compared to the variation between food groups.

For example, a medium sized apple was found to contribute a water-scarcity footprint of three
litres compared with more than 100 litres for a 250 ml glass of fresh orange juice. This reflects the
relative use of irrigation water and the local water scarcity where these crops are grown. It also
takes more fruit to produce juice than when fruit is consumed whole.

Two slices of wholegrain bread had a much lower water-scarcity footprint than a cup of cooked rice
(0.9 litres compared with 124 litres). Of the main protein sources, lamb had the lowest water-
scarcity footprint per serve (5.5 litres). Lambs are rarely raised on irrigated pastures and when
crops are used for feeding, these are similarly rarely irrigated.

Consumers generally lack the information they would need to choose core foods with a lower
water-scarcity footprint. Added to this, diversity is an important principle of good nutrition and
dissuading consumption of particular core foods could have adverse consequences for health.

Workers process punnets of strawberries at a

Queensland strawberry farm.

Dan Peled/AAP

Perhaps the best opportunities to reduce water scarcity impacts in the Australian food system lie in
food production. There is often very large variation between producers in water scarcity footprint
of the same farm commodity.

For example, a study of the water scarcity footprint of tomatoes grown for the Sydney market
reported results ranging from 5.0 to 52.8 litres per kg. Variation in the water-scarcity footprint of
milk produced in Victoria was reported to range from 0.7 to 262 litres. This mainly reflects
differences in farming methods, with variation in the use of irrigation and also the local water
scarcity level.

Water-scarcity footprint reductions could best be achieved through technological change, product
reformulation and procurement strategies in agriculture and food industries.

Not all water is equal

This is the first study of its kind to report the water-scarcity footprint for a large number of
individual self-selected diets.

This was no small task, given that 5,645 individual foods were identified. Many were processed
foods which needed to be separated into their component ingredients.

It’s hard to say how these results compare to other countries as the same analysis has not been
done elsewhere. The study did show a large variation in water-scarcity footprints within Australian
diets, reflecting the diversity of our eating habits.

Water scarcity is just one important environmental aspects of food production and consumption.
While we don’t suggest that dietary guidelines be amended based on water scarcity footprints, we
hope this research will support more sustainable production and consumption of food.

Taken from: The Conversation

https://theconversation.com/it-takes-21-litres-of-water-to-produce-a-small-chocolate-bar-how-water-wise-is-your-diet-
123180