Water Footprint and the Impact on Food Production and Environmental Sustainability

Freshwater is in short supply but the demand for it is constantly growing. Water footprint is used to indicate the amount of fresh water that any given process or activity uses. Growing and processing animal products have a much higher water footprint than crops such as fruits and vegetables. More information and research must be carried out regarding water footprints to improve overall sustainability and use of fresh water. Continuous research on developing policies, and more sustainable habits, must be developed to conserve the current freshwater resources. The objective of this research is preparing a report that can be used for generating guidelines for reducing water footprint by decreasing the amount of food waste. This research is meant to contribute to improving the planet’s overall water footprint and Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. The outcome of this report may be used by businesses or consumers to inform them how changing diet that contains less fruits and vegetables and is animal-based, into plant-based proteins would improve the sustainability index of food chain. It will also partially meet the requirements of the Sustainable Food Systems Management capstone course (NTD 450) at the department of nutrition