How Much Water Does It Take to Produce 1kg of Beef?

Almost everything we eat has consumed water somewhere in the process of being made and processed. But beef is credited with one of the biggest water footprints.

With our calculations and those of other beef-producing countries, we found that this was more than 15,000 liters per kilogram of beef.

But this number doesn’t tell you everything you need to know about how much water is used to make the beef on your plate or how it affects the environment. When you look more closely, you can see that where and how the beef is raised has a big impact on its water footprint.

Food production accounts for 70% of freshwater withdrawn from the environment. Water shortages in the western US and other places are caused in part by the need to use a lot of water to grow beef.

It’s also important to look at how much water is used to grow the food we eat because climate change could make droughts last longer and be worse.

So, how “thirsty” is beef? First, we have to differentiate between water from two sources. When we talk about water we usually think of rivers, lakes, reservoirs and groundwater aquifers.

This is what hydrologists call blue water. Blue water used to grow food depletes these water sources, leaving less for homes, businesses, and keeping the environment healthy.

Green water on the other hand is rainfall that plants consume. In some places, the plants that cows eat, like grass for grazing, hay or silage, and cereals, are mostly watered by rain. This green water makes up a big part of the huge amounts of water that beef is said to use.

Since green water can’t be used for anything else (unless you put a tarp over the ground and catch some of it), we don’t count its use as an effect of livestock production. Instead, we should focus on the blue water that is used. A serving of beef requires a lot less blue water than the 15,000 liters that were given above.

Beef is one of the most popular meats worldwide, but producing it requires large amounts of water. On average, it takes around 15,000 liters of water to produce just 1 kilogram of beef. This high water footprint has major implications for global water scarcity.

Why Does Beef Have Such a High Water Footprint?

The vast majority of water used in beef production is for growing animal feed. Cows are ruminants meaning their diet consists of grasses, hay and grain. The water footprint accounts for all the water needed to grow these crops.

Other water inputs come from drinking water for cattle and servicing beef processing facilities. However, the real water guzzler is irrigating and growing animal feed.

Let’s break down the components of water use

Feed crops: 65% green water (rainwater), 30% blue water (surface and groundwater)
Drinking water: 4% blue water
Processing water: 1% blue water

As you can see, the feed crops account for 95% of the total water footprint. The precise amount depends on the climatic conditions in each region, but the global average is approximately 15,000 liters per kg of beef.

How Does Beef Compare to Other Foods?

Compared to plant foods, beef has an exceptionally high water footprint. For example:

Beef: 15,000 liters/kg
Rice: 2,500 liters/kg
Wheat: 1,300 liters/kg
Potatoes: 300 liters/kg

Meat from other livestock like chicken and pork also requires more water than plants. However, ruminants like cattle have four-stomachs to digest grasses and grains, which is less efficient than chickens and pigs.

This explains why chicken requires 4,300 liters/kg whereas pork requires 6,000 liters/kg. Both still pale in comparison to beef.

Environmental Impacts of Beef’s Water Footprint

With a staggering 15,000 liters to produce just 1 kg, the beef industry places immense pressure on freshwater resources.

Agriculture accounts for approximately 70% of global water withdrawals, with the majority going towards irrigated crops like feed grains. In water-stressed regions, this can exacerbate depletion of rivers, lakes and aquifers.

For example, the Ogallala Aquifer in the U.S. Great Plains supplies 30% of all irrigation water for cattle ranching and feedlots. Decades of overpumping has now depleted the aquifer in some areas.

Reducing beef’s water footprint would relieve pressure on threatened water sources around the world. Even halving the footprint to 7,500 liters/kg would help restore balance between supply and demand.

Strategies to Reduce Beef’s Water Use

Here are some ways ranchers and consumers can help shrink beef’s water footprint:

Improved feed efficiency: Cows that convert feed to body mass more efficiently require less lifetime water for production. Selective breeding and improved nutrition practices can enhance feed efficiency.
Crop irrigation techniques: Using precision irrigation like drip systems decreases water wasted through evaporation or runoff. Crop rotation also promotes water retention in soils.
Dietary shifts: Eating less beef overall reduces water demand. Replacing beef with chicken or plant proteins saves significant volumes of water.
Consumer education: Consumers increasingly seek beef produced through sustainable ranching. Producers should communicate water conservation efforts like those above to retailers and consumers.

The Future of Beef Production and Water

As global demand for beef continues rising, particularly in highly populated countries like China and India, water scarcity concerns will intensify.

Sustainable production practices can help alleviate water stress. But reducing beef consumption overall is likely needed to achieve a sustainable balance between water supply and food production.

Consumers also have an important role to play by choosing beef produced using water-smart techniques. Purchasing beef with sustainability certifications helps reward producers taking tangible steps to shrink the industry’s water footprint.

With a concerted effort by all players in the beef supply chain, it’s possible to enjoy beef in moderation while keeping our freshwater resources healthy and resilient for generations to come.

how much water is needed to produce 1kg of beef

It’s not just water

The 33 litres of freshwater needed to produce a serving of beef is more than ten times as much as the 2.3 litres required to grow the potatoes you might have on the side, though it is much less than the 73 litres used to produce an avocado in Peru for instance, or the 181 litres required to produce a serving of basmati rice in Pakistan.

But there are lots of other things to consider for a sustainable and healthy diet: water scarcity is just one of the many impacts of producing beef. Cows emit potent greenhouse gas emissions such as methane and growing the crops that feed them, such as cereals, consumes a lot of synthetic fertiliser which is usually made by burning fossil fuels.

In some cases, the grassland cows eat might be a net absorber of CO2 from the air and not good for other farming purposes. A lot of forest and other habitats have been lost to make room for this pasture, though. The land that was used to grow feed for cows could now be used to grow food for people. If poorly managed, slurry from livestock pollutes rivers.

If you want to make smart decisions about how beef affects the world’s water, you need to know where the meat came from. If you eat beef from the western US, it could seriously affect how much water is available for other things. Beef from Britain, on the other hand, is less harmful.

You would also need to know what the animal was fed, whether the feed was irrigated, where the water came from and how scarce water is in that region. At that point, you have to consider how to trade off water use with other environmental and social consequences.

Tim Hess, Professor of Water and Food Systems, Cranfield University and Adrian Williams, Visiting Research Fellow in Environmental Systems, Cranfield University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.

What’s the beef with blue water?

In the feed processing industry, blue water is used to water grass and other feed crops. It is also used on farms for drinking water, cleaning, and to rinse abattoirs. Small amounts are used in other things, such as veterinary products, but these are trivial in comparison.

How much blue water it takes to get the meat to your plate depends on what the animal ate and how it was raised. For the UK, we estimated a national average of 67 litres per kilogram of carcass.

This is relatively low, because most beef consumed in the UK is fed on rain-fed grass and crops. Production systems in the US, on the other hand, that rely on irrigated feed may consume almost 2,000 litres per kg. This is blue water that has been diverted from rivers and aquifers.

In addition to raising the animal, 700 litres to 1,000 litres of water is used per animal in the abattoir for washing and hygiene.

Not all of the carcass makes beef – some of it may make dog food and there’s also inedible hide and bone – so the total water consumption has to be allocated among all the products. Producing a serving (375g) of English topside consumes 33 litres of blue water, 96% of which goes towards feeding and raising the animal.

The consequences of using water to produce food depend on where the water has come from and how much is available. In the UK, most beef production is concentrated in south-west England, Cheshire, north-west England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland – all wetter parts of the British Isles.

But most of the water cattle drink, and the water used to process their meat, comes from the public water supply where it competes with other demands. As of spring 2023, water restrictions are in place in parts of south-west England due to prolonged dry weather.

How much water is needed to produce a pound of beef?

FAQ

How much water does it take to make 1 kg of beef?

Typical values for the volume of water required to produce common foodstuffs

Foodstuff	Quantity	Water consumption, litres
Chocolate	1 kg	17,196
Beef	1 kg	15,415
Sheep Meat	1 kg	10,412
Pork	1 kg	5,988

How much water does it take to make 1 pound of beef?

Do you know what food has the largest global water footprint? Beef. It takes approximately 1,847 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of beef — that’s enough water to fill 39 bathtubs all the way to the top. For only one pound of beef?

How much water is used to produce beef?

While it’s a well-established fact that meat production requires more water than fruits, vegetables or grains, an average water footprint of 2,000 gallons per pound of beef (we now generally use 1,850 gallons per pound) is enormous.

How much water does it take to raise a beef cow?

University of Nebraska-Lincoln publications recommend that beef cattle need about 1 gallon of water for every 100 pounds of body weight, given average production conditions. That means an average 1200-pound adult beef cow requires 12 gallons of water a day.

How much water does a kilo of beef use?

If you buy 1kg of beef for a barbecue at the weekend, there has been an average of 15,415 liters of water used in its production! Breaking up meat’s monopoly as the most thirsty food type is nuts, with 9,063 liters of water needed to produce the average kilo.

How much water do you need to grow beef?

How much water do you need to produce meat?

However, it’s also true that meat production requires a much higher amount of water than vegetable production. To produce one kilogram of meat requires between 5,000 and 20,000 litres of water, whereas to produce one kilogram of wheat requires between 500 and 4,000 litres of water.

How much water does a pound of boneless beef use?

Water use estimates, or water footprints (defined as the amount of water used per unit of product), are available in the scientific literature and indicate that water footprints range from 317 1 up to 23,965 2 gallons per pound of boneless beef. Why is the range so large?