With the severity of the drought in California, there has been a lot of talk about the water footprint of the foods that we eat. The water footprint is the amount of water it takes to produce a certain food. For example, to produce one kilogram of beef it takes almost 15,500 liters of water.

In California, almonds have gotten the majority of the bad press, as has the meat and dairy industry, which are dependent on water-intensive alfalfa. Ethical eaters have in turn been challenged to think seriously about the impact of what they eat, this time in regards to the water footprint of their favorite foods.

But how much does it all really matter? Does opting out of almond milk and a hamburger do any good in the grand scheme of things?

As James McWilliams writes in Pacific Standard, overall even if we all stopped buying almond butter and cut out dairy from our diets, it wouldn’t necessarily make a measurable difference in California’s water crisis. Same goes for meat, as much of the alfalfa produced in California gets shipped across the ocean to China. “Making ethical consumer decisions based on hard data about specific commodities is about more than achieving immediate empirical impact.” As McWilliams goes on to write, “When an ecological problem—and its perceived solution—is elevated beyond the reach of individual behavior, the outcome is personal apathy.”

If the problem feels like it’s completely out of our hands, does it them absolve us from trying to do anything about it?

Apathy is in fact our worst enemy. As Charles de Montesquieu once said, “The tyranny of a prince in an oligarchy is not so dangerous to the public welfare as the apathy of a citizen in a democracy.” If we want to push for change then we must combat apathy.

When policymakers put the responsibility on individuals, it gets them out of taking action, and putting better policies in place. It’s easy to put the blame on individuals instead of doing the hard work. But a better world isn’t just the sum of a bunch of individual efforts; it’s a sum of individual and infrastructural change. And in making personal change, we create enough noise that infrastructural change becomes a reality. Just look at how much water scarcity is now a part of the American consciousness.

It might seem insignificant to change our diets based upon water footprint, but we have to do it anyway. Because making change is part of a larger fight, one that does in fact have a greater impact on policy change. Opting for a meat- and dairy-free meal once, or twice, or even three times a week, might not directly change what’s happening in California, but ultimately, the only thing that we have control over is what’s on the plate in front of us. If we don’t make ethical eating decisions, then we certainly have lost the battle; and in a food world that’s more and more threatened by climate change, change isn’t an option, it’s a necessity.

Eating ethically means knowing our food, it means understanding the problem, and it means not choosing a certain food just because it’s the latest trendy healthy thing to eat. Water footprint is but one of the factors that we should consider when we eat, and there’s no denying that makes eating ethically an overwhelming task. But the more personal choices we make, the more power that we have, at least in our immediate surroundings. You might not cut out almonds completely, but you might find more balance in the types of nuts and seeds that you eat. You might think twice about making guacamole from avocados every single night of the week. You might opt for something that’s produced more locally.

But our world needs a lot of change, and giving up isn’t an option. Eating better, for those of us who have the ability to do so, is the way forward.

Related on EcoSalon

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The Coming Global Water Crisis and 3 Ways to Deal With It

This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’ weekly column at EcoSalon: Foodie Underground, an exploration of what’s new and different in the underground movement, and how we make the topic of good food more accessible to everyone. More musings on the topic can be found at www.foodieunderground.com.

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Our lives depend on water, but we’re guzzling much more than our fair share.

Water is essential to every part of our daily lives, whether we are coming into direct contact with the liquid or not. Water is necessary for anything from keeping us hydrated to growing the food we eat and many of the raw materials needed to produce the objects we use. We tend to see water as a readily available substance that appears when we turn on the tap, not realizing how every single choice we make affects the world’s constantly declining supply of water. We are currently using up so much of the world’s water that it is projected that by 2030 water demand will exceed supply by 40 percent. That’s only 17 years away – what will we do?

It takes up to 2,000 gallons of water a day to sustain the lifestyle of an average U.S. citizen, and according to water expert Sandra Postel, more than half of it goes into our diet. A single pound of beef requires 1,799 gallons of water while 132 gallons of water are required for a pound of wheat and 119 gallons for a pound of potatoes. Beverages also have highly varying water footprints, as 1 gallon of coffee requires 880 gallon of water, while 1 gallon of tea requires 128 gallons of water and a gallon of wine requires 1,008 gallons of water. We can obviously make wiser dietary choices when it comes to our water footprint by choosing lower impact foods. But it seems that most of the country has been slow to do so, seeing as we consumed more than 52 billion pounds of meat in 2012 for example.

Global agricultural production alone accounts for 92 percent of the total water footprint, but food crops make-up only part of the equation. Textiles, biofuels, paper, fiber composites, coal and oil all require water use. We use these resources all the time, but not many of us consider that more than 700 gallons of water were used to produce just one of our many cotton t-shirts or that more than 13 gallons are necessary for five sheets of paper.

One of the main reasons our society does not understand the true value of water is our disconnection from the origin of our products and their supply chains. Most of the water use for the products we consume occurs far away from our daily lives as several large companies have outsourced their production to countries where water is over-exploited and valued at lower prices. Half of China’s industrial production and 40 percent of its agricultural activity occurs in the country’s driest regions despite extremely high risk of damage to long-term water supplies. The ‘Made in China’ label can means much more than possible labor exploitation, poor working conditions and cheap materials – it also demonstrates how the largest water footprint of the USA lies in the Yangtze River basin.

Fresh drinking water is another issue that many of us in first-world countries don’t really have to consider, as we can easily get it from our filtered tap or buy it from the store. Although 70 percent of the Earth is covered by water, most of it is saline and ocean-based. Only 2.5 of the world’s water is fresh, with only 1 percent of it accessible, as the rest is trapped in glaciers and snowfields. Water scarcity already affects 2.7 billion people every year, but the amount of people facing that problem is set to grow. It’s estimated that by 2025 two-thirds of the world’s population will live in water-stressed or water scarce regions.

So what can you do to make a difference? The first step is to educate yourself, and understand the water footprints of the different products you buy, and find possible alternatives. Our choices as consumers make a significant difference to the way businesses operate worldwide. National Geographic has created an online platform that allows you to compare the water footprints of different agricultural crops and gives tips on how to conserve water on a daily basis. Educating yourself on greywater systems and how to effectively implement them in your toilet or irrigation makes an immense difference. You can also ask businesses and municipalities to adopt sensible water recycling schemes by writing to them, so make your voice heard. We are already in the middle of a water crisis, it just hasn’t become as pertinent in the lives of those who still have access to clean water. Let’s realize it by becoming aware and active in curbing the effects while we still can – every drop counts.

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