What’s the Water Footprint of Your Garden?

We’ve all heard about our Carbon Footprint, now there is information about the “water footprint” of various vegetables and meats. Most of us know we Americans are water guzzlers, using about 100 gallons per day per person.

But out of the 100 gallons a day, how much goes to grow our food? Some of the numbers are startling!

The following figures were derived (thanks to Waterfootprint.org) from “Globalization of water: Sharing the planet's freshwater resources”, by Hoekstra, A.Y. and Chapagain, A.K. (2008) Blackwell Publishing, Oxford, UK.

The gallons listed below are the amount of water needed to grow ONE POUND of the food listed. The water is a global average rather than from specific localities.

Fruits, Vegetables and Grains
Lettuce -- 15 gallons
Tomatoes -- 22 gallons
Cabbage -- 24 gallons
Cucumber -- 28 gallons
Potatoes -- 30 gallons
Oranges -- 55 gallons
Apples -- 83 gallons
Bananas -- 102 gallons
Corn -- 107 gallons
Peaches or Nectarines -- 142 gallons
Wheat Bread -- 154 gallons
Mango -- 190 gallons
Avocado -- 220 gallons
Tofu -- 244 gallons
Rice -- 403 gallons
Olives -- 522 gallons
Chocolate -- 2847 gallons

Meat and Dairy
Eggs -- 573 gallons
Chicken -- 815 gallons
Cheese -- 896 gallons
Pork -- 1630 gallons
Butter -- 2044 gallons
Beef -- 2500-5000 gallons
(Global figures for the water intensity of beef vary so significantly that an average isn't particularly informative, so a range of figures is given)

I could not discover if the water usage for a pound of beef included the water to grow the corn fed to beef cattle.

This partial list is only a part of the environmental impact of what we eat. Other factors are fertilizers (and whether organic or conventional), water pollution from run-off, whether our food is local, shipped across the country, or imported, and even farm/food politics.