My question this week was about the water usage in the food industry and whether or not it increases or effects areas in drought. There was a great article by the New York Time’s Nicholas Kristof about the water usage in the food industry and how the water footprint has not been reflected on the price of foods we consume. The prices of many foods have actually gone down, and chicken in particular has been brought down by almost three-quarters since 1930 (Kristof 2015). The water used in agriculture is very high in the U.S, and in California 80% of water usage goes to agriculture, and judging by the difficult handling of a limited water supply that is a very high amount. The agriculture industry in the west provides a significant amount of food consumed in the U.S. due to its ability to produce year-round, yet the impact of plant and animal production takes a toll on the environment.
The point about meat production being higher than crop production was brought up a lot in this article, but something that really sparked my interest for further learning was whether or not this issue of food water footprints put the industry at fault, or the consumer. The industry does what it can to meet demands, and the consumers are the ones who continue to purchase it, but wouldn’t the consumers still continue to purchase crops and animal products at higher prices or that had different, more sustainable production methods? There is a very interesting angle of how these markets can be incentivized in the future to have more sustainable practices and whether than would reflect in the price and the foot print (Kristof 2016). Are consumers willing to bear some of the cost for a more sustainable product and future?
Works Cited:
Kristof, Nicholas. “Our Water-Guzzling Food Factory.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 30 May 2015. Web. 14 Feb. 2016.