Friday, March 29, 2024

What foods consume the most water?

Must read

Maria Gill
Maria Gill
"Subtly charming problem solver. Extreme tv enthusiast. Web scholar. Evil beer expert. Music nerd. Food junkie."

We talk a lot about the carbon footprint of our food, but agriculture to produce food also uses large amounts of water. A kilogram of beef requires more than 15,000 liters. But there is worse …

The “water footprint”, computed by Water Footprint Network (A network that brings together scholars, companies and citizens), specifies amount of water Direct and indirect required for manufacturing various products. For beef, for example, we take into account the water used to grow meadow or Grain After it has been used to feed the animal, which water a cow This is necessary for processing and transporting meat.

Chocolate, coffee and dried fruits: a lot of water for a little raw materials

But while beef is often distinguished, the chocolate And coffee is even worse, with 17196 liters and 15,897 liters each Kg Of the product. Of course, we rarely eat a kilo of chocolate at once, but it turns out that cocoa trees need a lot of water, between 10 and 15 liters a day, which prompts large farms to water their farms intensively. The same for coffee: in a 125ml cup, there are actually … 130 liters of water! Dried fruit (Cashew nutspistachio almondsHazelnuts), are bad names and are also among the foods with the most “default” water.

Fruits and vegetables: Foods that require the least amount of water

Among the good students were vegetables (237 liters of water per kilogram of lettuce or 287 liters per kilogram of lettuce) potato For example), where little water is lost or evaporated during the manufacturing process and thus ends up in the final product. Even taking into account spending on water before Calories (Meat is more nutritious than vegetables), animal products have a less favorable water effect than plant products. Thus, producing calories from beef requires 10.2 liters of water as opposed to 1.8 liters for milk or 0.5 liters for cereals. In the end, if every French is on a diet vegetarianAnd the Thus, it can save up to 2770 liters per person per day Every year, more than a million liters a year.

Interested in what you just read?

Latest article