The Water We Eat Lesson 22032022

WHAT IF
What if I told you:

you eat 3496 litres of water
EVERYDAY
1 Source: The Water We Eat .com. | Data: Water Footprint Network, Virtual Water by Tony Allan
A DISCOVERY
Eating water might sound strange, but you

are about to discover that actually you eat
loads of it, you are addicted to it, and you
don’t know it.
WHY IT IS IMPORTANT
An understanding of our water consumption

can help us provide a solution to one of our
most pressing problems: making sure there is
enough water for everybody on the planet.
YOUR ACTIONS MATTER
You can be part of that

SOLUTION.
WHAT IS VISIBLE
Much of the water we use is

obvious it's visible in our
homes. It's the water we use
at home for drinking,
cooking, washing. That is our
domestic consumption.
DOMESTIC CONSUMPTION
Our domestic consumption is

137 litres of water everyday.
HOW WE MANAGE IT
This is how we manage

those 137 litres.
5% Cleaning
10% Cooking and drinking
20% Laundry
30% Flushing toilet
35% Bathing and Showering
A LITTLE PROBLEM
There is a little problem

though, because what we
consume at home is visible to
us, but it is only a small bit of
what we use in total. There
are two invisible parts.
8 8
Source: The Water We Eat .com. | Data: Water Footprint Network, Virtual Water by Tony Allan
FIRST INVISIBLE PART
The first invisible part is the

water used for the production
of the industrial products we
consume everyday, such as
paper, cotton, clothes. This
part amounts to 167 litres per
day.
SECOND INVISIBLE PART
The second big invisible part

is associated with the
production of the food we
consume. This amounts to
3496 litres per day which
means that 92% of the water
we use is invisible and it is
hidden in our food!
VIRTUAL WATER
We call this invisible water Virtual Water, a

term coined by water guru Prof. Tony Allan.
The concept of virtual water helps us realize
how much water is needed to produce the
goods we use and the food we eat.
Let's discover why it is invisible.

BEEF: TIME
Consider beef for instance.
In an industrial beef
production system it takes on
average three years before
the animal is slaughtered to
produce about 200 kilos of
boneless beef.
BEEF: GRAINS
During the three years the

cow consumes nearly 1300
kg of grains such as wheat,
oats, barley, corn, dry peas,
and other small grains.
BEEF: ROUGHAGES
The cow also consumes 7200

kg of roughages such as
pasture, dry hay, silage, and
other roughages.
BEEF: WATER
The production of all the

grains and roughages
requires 3060000 litres of
water. We need to take into
account also 24000 litres of
water that the cow drinks
during the three years and we
do not have to forget the
7000 litres for servicing the
farmhouse and for
slaughtering processes.
BEEF: TO SUM UP
Therefore, in total, we need

3091000 litres of water for
producing 200 kilos of
boneless beef. This means
that to produce 1 kilogram of
boneless beef we need 15400
litres of water.
A WATER WALL
Can you visualize 15400 litres of

water in your head?
Well, if this is a 1-litre water bottle…
A WATER WALL
…this is how 1000 litres

look like…
A WATER WALL
…and this is how

15400 litres look
like, a 23 by 14
metre water-wall!
All completely
14 meters
hidden in a big
steak!
23 meters
WATER FOR FOOD
Water is precious. But not

just for drinking: water is
food! Thanks to the
extraordinary work of
scientists we know how
much water we need to
produce the food we
consume. It is easy to see that
some products such as fruit
and vegetables are more
water-friendly than others.
NOW WE KNOW
So now we know: most of the water we use - 92 %

of it - is used in food production. Most of this water
is managed by the world’s farmers. With the help of
science and technology they have performed greater
and greater miracles in improving water productivity
– in getting more crops per drop.
WE CAN HELP
Can we help? We can!

The good news is that each one of us can also make
the world a little more water secure, ready to face
the needs of our peak population future.
How? The answer lies in our shopping baskets.

THE AMOUNT OF MEAT
The amount of meat in our diet is crucial! The average daily water
consumption of a meat-eating person is 5000 litres of water per day.
The average for a vegetarian is 2500 litres. In countries where there is a
culture of heavy meat consumption, the advice is: one meat-free-day a
week! Every little bit helps.
THE TYPE OF MEAT
The type of meat we consume is crucial! Choose meat raised on grass

if you can. It is normally a more sensible use of water resources, since
the land often cannot be used for highly productive crop production.
Meat from sheep almost always falls into this category.
Agri-corporations and supermarkets do not generally fit the grass-fed
livestock model. Cheap meat is usually fed on grain, corn-fed beef is
the problem.
THE FOOD WE WASTE
The food we waste is crucial! We are highly wasteful, particularly in

the industrialized nations. In the advanced economies we throw away
approximately 30% of the food we purchase. Almost a third! And with
it, all the water resources we use to produce that food. It would be wise
to consider whether we should be producing and buying that food in the
first place, so please, do not waste!
DON’T FORGET
1 2 3
one meat-free-day choose meat do not waste
a week raised on grass food
A SENSIBLE DIET
Enjoy a water sensible diet.

Start today and spread the message!
CREDITS
This work is labor of love and passion for an important cause.
If you use this material, we would be grateful if you could credit us.
We would be over the moon to receive a photo of you with your

class while using the infographic or this teaching material:
[email protected]
This work by InfoDesignLab is licensed under a Creative Commons

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Neither modiﬁcations nor commercial
uses of the material are permitted.
@@InfoDesign_Lab @angelamorelli @tomhal99

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WHAT IF

What if I told you:

Eating water might sound strange, but you

An understanding of our water consumption

You can be part of that

Much of the water we use is

Our domestic consumption is

This is how we manage

There is a little problem

The first invisible part is the

The second big invisible part

We call this invisible water Virtual Water, a

Let's discover why it is invisible.

Consider beef for instance.

During the three years the

The cow also consumes 7200

The production of all the

Therefore, in total, we need

Can you visualize 15400 litres of

…this is how 1000 litres

…and this is how

Water is precious. But not

So now we know: most of the water we use - 92 %

Can we help? We can!

How? The answer lies in our shopping baskets.

The type of meat we consume is crucial! Choose meat raised on grass

The food we waste is crucial! We are highly wasteful, particularly in

Enjoy a water sensible diet.

This work is labor of love and passion for an important cause.

We would be over the moon to receive a photo of you with your

This work by InfoDesignLab is licensed under a Creative Commons

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