Here we go with the 7 ton T-bone again. 7,000 liters of water (7mt) in that steak, 5,000 pound burgers and 140 liters (37 gal.) of water in a cup of coffee (talk about bottomless cups!)
Paradoxically, the water we “eat” is likely to become one of the growing new dangers to millions of the world’s thirsty, hungering for this finite natural resource.
“More than one-fourth of all the water we use worldwide is taken to grow over one billion tons of food that nobody eats,” Torgny Holmgren, executive director of the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), told delegates during the opening of the annual international water conference, World Water Week, in the Swedish capital Monday.
“That water, together with the billions of dollars spent to grow, ship, package and purchase the food, is sent down the drain,” he said.
“And reducing the waste of food is the smartest and most direct route to relieve pressure on water and land resources. It’s an opportunity we cannot afford to overlook,” he added.
The conference, one of the world’s largest single gathering of experts on water and sanitation, has drawn more than 2,000 delegates, including senior U.N. officials, scientists, academics, water activists and representatives of the business community, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and the media, from over 100 countries.
Since everything humans eat requires water to be produced, the paradox of the water we “eat” was best illustrated by an exhibition in the conference lobby, which pointed out that the production of an average hamburger – two slices of bread, beef, tomato, lettuce, onions and cheese – consumes about 2,389 litres of water, compared to 140 litres for a cup of coffee and 135 for a single egg.
An average meal of rice, beef and vegetables requires about 4,230 litres of water while a chunky, succulent beef steak, a staple among the rich in the world’s industrial countries, consumes one of the largest quantum of water: about 7,000 litres.
But they never say where the water has gone. I think it is still here and ready for re-use.
Dammit! They cry about obesity, then cry that we don’t eat all our food!
Water is pretty much an end product so, yes, it’s still around. Plus, is there a water shortage in the areas where the livestock is raised or finished? Are those operations taking the water away from the masses and then watching them die of thirst? I very much doubt it. All this is just another effort of the UN to get into our country’s business.
A couple of quick searches say that growing an acre of corn requires 549 thousand gallons of water and yields 328 gallons of ethanol.
That’s 1673 gallons of water in each gallon of ethanol even before you consider processing and distribution.
If the UN is worried about water wasted in “food that nobody eats” I’m sure they will be calling for a ban on ethanol any day now.
It is interesting that much of this water would not be recoverable anyway. In California where much of the water for farming trucked around (canaled around) , they have a case. But In the Midwest where most of the water for crops comes from rain, there is no issue, and no other use for the water that is raining on the surface of the ground anyway. No crops in Iowa, does not mean water saved for other uses.
Obviously they have hired former Enron accountants to do their calculations. The only problem with fresh water in the world is that it is not conveniently located. Wasting food, resources, money is never good, but Chicken Little is fictional and the sky is not falling.