Wat-er Ya Eatin'?

We drink water to live, but did you know we use more water than we could ever drink - when we eat?

Learning goal

To build appreciation for the magnitude of water needed to produce food

Subjects

Language Arts
Math
Science
Social Science

Sunshine State Standards

Language Arts: Listening, Viewing, and Speaking, LA.C.1.3. Math: Number Sense, Concepts, and Operations, MA.A.1.3. Science: Processes that Shape the Earth, SC.D.2.3. Social Studies: People, Places, and the Environment, SS.B.1.3

Background

People engage in two kinds of water use: direct and indirect. Turning on a faucet, taking a shower, watering the yard, etc. are direct uses of water. By comparison, the water that goes into producing the food people eat and the various products they use and consume constitute indirect uses of water.

All of the food we eat requires water to grow. Water for growing food is supplied either by rain (or other precipitation) or is added through irrigation. Even more water is needed when the food is cleaned and processed. The size and texture of the food will not reveal how much water was used in producing it.

This will help you understand your personal indirect water use - and the magnitude of water required to produce food.

Activity

Guess how many gallons of water it takes to produce a single serving of each of the below list of common foods. The actual numbers are sure to "wet" your appetite:

Lettuce
Chicken
French fries
Almonds
Rice
Watermelon
Hamburger
Steak
Tomatoes
Milk

Extension

Plan picnic meals for four people using the foods listed above. Have them list the foods they chose and calculate the number of gallons of water that went in to making the meals.
Roughly 3.7 million people live within the Southwest Florida Water Management District. Calculate how much water would go into producing enough food for one day's worth of meals for everyone living in the SWFWMD. Answers will vary.

Source: U.S. Geological Survey

Answers:

6
408
6
12
36
100
1,303
2,607
3
65