around the world many farmers struggled
to meet their crops demand for water yet
every year farmers send billions of
virtual gallons of water to other
countries in the form of food and feed
grown with that water some countries
export more than the import others do
the opposite the demand for milk in
China where consumers are drinking more
of it than ever shows how virtual water
is being exported from the United States
Chinese farmers responded to the growing
demand for milk by importing more
foreign cows but Chinese farmers
couldn’t grow enough to feed all their
cattle demand for alfalfa hay increased
and with it imports of virtual water it
takes 1182 gallons of water to produce a
single gallon of milk in China only 1%
of that water is for cattle to drink or
for other uses on the farm the remaining
99% is used to produce feed and hay for
the cattle much of China’s imported
alfalfa hay comes from California which
is suffering one of its worst droughts
on record alfalfa is the state’s largest
agricultural water user and Chinese
imports of US alfalfa have grown
drastically since 2005 reaching almost
650 thousand tons in 2013 growing that
took three hundred ten thousand acre
feet of us water that’s equivalent to
the amount used annually by 800,000
American families the issue of
Agriculture’s water footprint meaning
all the water used to produce a
commodity and get it to a consumer is
contentious since many farmers use
scarce water to produce low value export
crops but at the very least we can all
be more aware of the water that arrives
not just in our glasses
but on our plates
you
you
to meet their crops demand for water yet
every year farmers send billions of
virtual gallons of water to other
countries in the form of food and feed
grown with that water some countries
export more than the import others do
the opposite the demand for milk in
China where consumers are drinking more
of it than ever shows how virtual water
is being exported from the United States
Chinese farmers responded to the growing
demand for milk by importing more
foreign cows but Chinese farmers
couldn’t grow enough to feed all their
cattle demand for alfalfa hay increased
and with it imports of virtual water it
takes 1182 gallons of water to produce a
single gallon of milk in China only 1%
of that water is for cattle to drink or
for other uses on the farm the remaining
99% is used to produce feed and hay for
the cattle much of China’s imported
alfalfa hay comes from California which
is suffering one of its worst droughts
on record alfalfa is the state’s largest
agricultural water user and Chinese
imports of US alfalfa have grown
drastically since 2005 reaching almost
650 thousand tons in 2013 growing that
took three hundred ten thousand acre
feet of us water that’s equivalent to
the amount used annually by 800,000
American families the issue of
Agriculture’s water footprint meaning
all the water used to produce a
commodity and get it to a consumer is
contentious since many farmers use
scarce water to produce low value export
crops but at the very least we can all
be more aware of the water that arrives
not just in our glasses
but on our plates
you
you
Please follow and like us: