We found the average Australian’s diet had a water-scarcity footprint of 362 litres per day. The consumption of red meat – beef and lamb – contributed only 3.7% of the total dietary water-scarcity footprint. This reflects the relative use of irrigation water and the local water scarcity where these crops are grown. Two slices of wholegrain bread had a much lower water-scarcity footprint than a cup of cooked rice (0.9 litres compared with 124 litres). There is often very large variation between producers in water scarcity footprint of the same farm commodity.

Source: The Guardian October 06, 2019 23:26 UTC