Last week, as part of World Water Week, the Stockholm Environmental Institute, the Stockholm International Water Institute, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, and the International Water Management Institute released a collaborative paper "Saving Water: From Field to Fork - Curbing Losses and Wastage in the Food Chain" (PDF). One of the more shocking revelations in the paper is that half the food produced world wide is wasted, and since agriculture is the largest human use of water, that means wasted water, too.

"As much as half of the water used to grow food globally may be lost or wasted," says Dr. Charlotte de Fraiture, a researcher at IWMI. "Curbing these losses and improving water productivity provides win-win opportunities for farmers, business, ecosystems, and the global hungry."  - Environment News Service

In the U.S. alone, as much as 30% of food is thrown away - at a cost of $48.3 billion dollars and 40 trillion liters of water. This is common in developed countries where production may be efficient, but there is a high level of waste by consumers. The report posits that in developing countries, 15 to 35% of food may be lost in the field and an additional 10 to15% discarded during processing, transport and storage, all happening before it gets to the point of consumption.

The paper points out that the global food crisis is not caused by lack of production capabilities, but by distribution and wastage issues:

"Inefficient harvesting, transport, storage and packaging make a considerable dent in the potential availability of food. Additional and significant losses and wastage occur in food processing, wholesale, retail and in households and other parts of society where food is consumed." - Saving Water: From Field to Fork - Curbing Losses and Wastage in the Food Chain

And unless consumers are composting, that food waste goes into landfill where it turns into methane gas and contributes to faster climate change.

With growing water scarcity issues a matter of great concern - 1.4 billion people already live in areas where there is not enough water - agriculture is a key sector to begin to increase efficiency in order to conserve.

The researchers point to growing demand for animal based food products - as some parts of the world experience higher standards of living for the first time - as a great pressure on the agricultural sector. Agricultural biofuel production, as well, is placing increasing pressure on land and water resources.

The graphic above shows estimated water requirements for food today and hypothetical water requirements for food and bioenergy around the year 2050.

And the report has this to say about the Hallmark beef recall earlier this year:

Earlier this year, the Hallmark/Wetland Meat Packing Company, California, voluntarily recalled approximately 143,383,823 pounds or about 65 million kgs, of raw and frozen beef products, following an investigation by USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (Rano 2008). What reached the headlines were stories of the undercover investigation by the Humane Society of the United States, and the resulting footage of plant employees mistreating cattle. The video led to fears that the use of crippled cattle could increase the risk of human exposure to mad cow disease or pathogens such as E. coli. The news has spurred fiery debate amongst industry and consumer safety groups, with the latter claiming that the incident supports growing consumer fears that the US government is not properly regulating meat safety.

The unreported side of the story is about the water wastage of this and similar incidents. As mentioned in chapter 1 of this report, the consumptive use of water to produce beef varies significantly between countries and production systems, but a conservative average is about 5 to 10 tonnes of water per kilo beef. To produce the 65 million kgs of beef, will thus require an estimated of 650 billion liters of water that is evaporated and transpired, mainly to grow the fodder for the animals. This is enough water to irrigate about 100,000 ha of dry land for a year, or supply more than enough for Las Vegas annual supply (the present demand is 870 liters per capita per day, BBC news, Vegas heading for ‘dry future', July 29, 2005) which extracts about 350 billion liters from Lake Mead (from Wikipedia).

The paper calls for a 50% reduction in the amount of food that is wasted by 2025 and outlines the steps to achieve this, including:

• Support to farmers including improved seeds and technology for harvesting, transport and storage, better financial support for productivity and increased use of rain water capture for irrigation
• Improved food processing and supply management to minimize water use
• Raising consumer awareness about food waste
• Better tracking data on food and water waste

It is clear that as half of the world faces increasing food insecurity and under nourishment, and the other half continues to engage in over consumption and waste, while we all face the specter of chronic drought and water shortages, something must be done. Like with the energy crisis, it starts with increasing efficiency. And for consumers in the developed world, that increase efficiency starts with cutting down on our own personal food and water waste.

Further Reading:

• Food Gets Political as UK Government Examines the Food Chain
• Food Futures Now - Feeding People and Place, Without Fossil Fuels