Friday, July 04, 2008

Water footprint

I've always found it difficult to calculate my carbon footprint. This is probably because I don't really know what type of electricity/gas plan we have at home (but seeing that I'm east Australian it's most likely coal...).

Was out shopping for a carry-on bag for my trip & saw this new freebie magazine Sprinkla. It is a community-based quarterly magazine that specialises in sustainability issues. The current issue (Issue 02/March 08) is on water, with a particular link to calculating your water footprint. In it there is a short article on water-wise food. I've always known that it takes a lot more energy to grow meat than fruit & vegebut never knew exact numbers. The water-wsie food article gave a listing of how much water is required to grow the following foods:
  • 100g of orange: 50L
  • 100g apples: 70L
  • 250ml beer: 75L
  • 125ml wine: 120L
  • 125ml coffee: 140L
  • 200g potato crisps: 185L
  • 200ml milk: 200L
  • 1kg rice: 3,400L
And the grand-daddy of them all - 1kg beef: 16,000L. 16,000L!!!! No wonder we're regularly in drought!

I'm so glad I don't really eat much meat!

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