Calculating water footprints of animal, plant proteins
Monday, January 31, 2011 - 11:20
in Biology & Nature
Many times more water is needed for the production of meat and other animal products, such as eggs and dairy produce, than for the production of plant products. The University of Twente (The Netherlands) has for the first time calculated the exact water footprint of both animal and plant products per kilo, per calorie and per protein. Among the results of the calculations are that beef uses up twenty times more water per calorie than grain or potatoes. In combination with the growing world population, this is putting pressure on the earth's freshwater resources: only three percent of all the water on earth is fresh, and only a small proportion of this is available for human use.