Chapter 18. Agricultural Water Use: Water’s Central Role in Our Food Supply

In this chapter, we tackle the water quantity and quality impacts of agriculture, which remains the largest water user both globally and in many regions. We address questions like these:

  • How can agriculture become more sustainable from a water perspective, while still providing enough food for a growing population?
  • Which foods have the largest water footprints?
  • How can we make better use of both blue and green water in growing food?
  • How does agriculture pollute water and soil, and how can we minimize those impacts?

To the right you can download resources from the book and access new resources relevant to this chapter.

Resources From the Book

Table of Contents

Highlights

Table 1: Terms used in this chapter

Table 2: Social and environmental impacts of the Green Revolution

Table 3: Global water consumption by crop and region

Table 4: Efficiency of different irrigation methods

Figure 1: Food supply has grown faster than population or agricultural land

Figure 2: Water footprints of different foods

Figure 3: Feed Conversion Ratios for industrial and grazing systems

Figure 4: Virtual water trade in unsustainable water

Figure 5: Fertilizer use over time

Figure 6: Indirect impacts of meat consumption

Additional Resources

As background for Section 6.2 (Nutrient Pollution from Croplands), this page gives a primer on natural and anthropogenic N and P cycling.

Chapters in Part 4