What's your water footprint?

Water conservation can begin with your dinner plate. Sure, it looks like merely a hamburger with cheese, a baked potato and a cup of coffee.

But look at it in terms of water: ● It took about 464 gallons of water to produce that quarter pound of beef, ● 108 gallons to produce a potato, ● 37 gallons to make 1 ounce of cheese ● and 37 gallons of water to create your 8-ounce cup of coffee.

This concept of calculating how much water goes into the production of food or other items is called "virtual water." Instead of seeing only the item in front of you — say, a ribeye steak — you look at where it came from, how the cattle was raised, how many gallons of water were used in irrigation to produce the feed the cattle ate, how many gallons of water were used to create the fertilizer and pesticides used in raising the feed corn, how much water was consumed by the actual animal, how many resources went into getting that animal from the ranch to the slaughter house to the packing plant to the store to you.

As food and energy costs continue to rise, and concern about the effects of global warming increases, many consumers are looking at choices differently. Our community consolidates car trips to save gas and plans meals based on coupons and sales instead of convenience.

Water is a prized resource in our part of the world and we face huge policy questions as communities in Arizona continue to grow in size and population. We must come to terms with how we use this priceless and limited commodity.

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"I think people at the global level are talking about this with global trading in food, but it's only now becoming a local issue," said Pat Gober, the co-director of the Decision Center for a Desert City at Arizona State University. "If somebody in Phoenix consumes a hamburger it's not consuming much of Phoenix's water, but it's consuming Brazil's water, or wherever the beef was raised. It's the globalization of our food supply.

"Food as a way of conserving water," said Gober. "I think it's an important thing to think about."

How much water do you really use?

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When adding up all of the water you use in just one day to shower, drink, cook, clean, eat, prepare food, and for sanitation, not to mention recreation, pools, sprinklers, watering lawns, washing cars, washing clothes, etc., it is astounding to see the total. And the impacts of that use are felt globally.

http://www.waterfootprint.org can help you calculate your water footprint and give you information about how to bring it down. It is only when we begin to look beyond the dinner plate and the tangible items to see what goes into them that we become more aware and more enpowered in our choices. And that can have a positive global effect, especially now as not only 45 % of our country is in some stage of drought, but much of our world.