What's Your Water Footprint?

Our nation's current trend toward an earth-friendly lifestyle has created a consumer awareness of the need to conserve water and other natural resources. We are familiar with methods of reducing our freshwater usage in regard to bathing, washing laundry, cooking, watering our lawn, and other household maintenance chores, but some consumers may not be aware that this is only a small part of the water we use daily. Just as we have a "carbon footprint" that measures our contribution to the greenhouse gasses that have an impact on global warming, we also have a "water footprint" that is a measure of our direct and indirect use of water.

Direct use of water refers to the water we actually use in our homes. The indirect use is "virtual water," which includes the volume of water used to grow crops and the processing required to bring those crops to our table, and in the manufacturing processes of the consumer goods we buy.

Your water footprint includes the water used in your home, and the water used in the production and manufacture of the food, goods and services you provide for your family.

Food crops grown with irrigation methods will have a higher water footprint that those which are not. The water already present in the ground is part of the water footprint. Once the food crop is grown, the water is no longer present in the crop. The virtual water used to grow that crop can vary due to agricultural practices and climate conditions. Knowing how much virtual water a crop needs can help growers determine the best method of producing the crop to use the least amount of freshwater, which is especially important in geographical locations where water is scarce.

Animals which are raised for food have a much higher water footprint than food crops. For instance, a pound of corn requires approximately 60 gallons of water to produce, while a pound of beef requires approximately 1500 gallons. The amount of water actually contained in a product is often minuscule when compared to the amount of water it took to produce it.