A Solution to Reduce Water Use?
Published on by Water Network Research, Official research team of The Water Network in Academic
Diet Change -Reducing Water Use?
Eating less meat would protect water resources in dry areas around the world, researchers have found. Reducing the use of animal products can have a considerable impact on areas suffering scarce water resources, as meat production requires more water than other agricultural products, they say.
Reducing the use of animal products can have a considerable impact on areas suffering scarce water resources, as meat production requires more water than other agricultural products.
"Diet change together with other actions, such as reduction of food losses and waste, may tackle the future challenges of food security," states researcher Mika Jalava from Aalto University.
Growing population and climate change are likely to increase the pressure on already limited water resources and diet change has been suggested as one of the measures contributing to adequate food security for growing population.
Introduction
There is widespread concern over the use of the world's water resources . As the population grows, water scarcity increases in many parts of the world , and the planetary boundary for consumptive freshwater use is rapidly approaching . It has been estimated that around a third of the world's population now lives in areas that suffer from physical water scarcity. Agriculture is by far the thirstiest water user, accounting for about 90% of total fresh water consumption globally . Scarce water resources increasingly limit sufficient food production, particularly in large parts of Africa and Asia .
The pressure on limited water resources is likely to intensify in the future. The global population is expected to reach 9.6 billion by 2050, adding over 2 billion mouths to feed to the current population (UN2013). It has been estimated that, with current food consumption trends, ensuring adequate nutrition for the future population would require doubling the food production by 2050.
This study attempts to deepen the understanding of the impact of diets on resource use by analysing the effect of changes in diets on consumptive water use at a country level and at a global extent. We first analysed the impact of modifying diets to fulfil the dietary guidelines by the World Health Organization (WHO), and then the effect of shifting from animal-based food products, especially meat, toward a more plant-based diet. In both analyses, we kept the diet composition as close to original as possible to retain the traditional and culturally acceptable food composition in each country. We analysed the corresponding changes in water use, with special emphasis on regional differences and on differences between how green water is used (i.e., naturally infiltrated rain, attached to soil particles and accessible by roots) and how blue water is used (i.e., freshwater in rivers, lakes, reservoirs and aquifers extracted for irrigation).
Recommended diets for all
Adjusting diets to the recommendations (i.e., RD scenario) reduced global dietary energy consumption by 3.6%, which showed that the world food supply, even after losses, is more than adequate from the energy intake perspective. However, the distribution of food is far from even.
Changes in diet characteristics by adjustment from the Original Diet (OD) to the Recommended Diet (RD) (A). Change in daily dietary energy intake when adjusted to ADER (average dietary energy requirement). ( B ). Change in daily protein content when adjusted to conform to the WHO recommendation (10-15% of total energy). (C). Change in dietary fat content when adjusted to the WHO recommendation (15-30% of total energy).
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