Study finds meat has less impact on water scarcity than most other foods
21/10/2019
Fully 25% of the water-scarcity footprint is down to ‘discretionary foods’, which refers to food that not necessary in a healthy diet. Examples include cakes, biscuits, sugar-sweetened drinks and alcohol. The second-highest contributor to the water-scarcity footprint was fruit, followed by dairy products, with bread and cereals ranking fourth.
The study was carried out by researchers from Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and the results have been published in a journal called Nutrients.
Principal research scientist, Brad Ridoutt, has told MLA: “Eating fresh meat is less impactful to water-scarcity than most other food groups, even cereals.”
He went on to say that the team of researchers had calculated water footprint based on the international water footprint standard, ISO14046:2014, which he referred to as the highest-level consensus document for industry to follow for this. Dr Ridoutt then explained: “Other studies have added up water not only taken from water resources, but also water that just happened to fall on the rangelands that went into the soil, was used by grasses, and then eaten by livestock.
The ISO standard forbids such practice.”
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