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The article goes on to say: "Food production accounts for 80% of the country's fresh water consumption, but the waste of food means 25% of the fresh water is a

The article goes on to say: "Food production accounts for 80% of the country's fresh water consumption, but the waste of food means 25% of the fresh water is actually wasted." This provides a solid support for the claim you highlighted. It is likely going to become more and more difficult to deny that access to clean fresh water is a high-priority problem.

olalonde 14y ago
Why is it a high-priority problem? edit: I am genuinely curious. All I can come up with is increasing population which doesn't seem like much of a problem since demand for food will also increase, food prices will rise and waste will diminish.
- stdbrouw 14y ago
  Are you going all Socratic on us, or are you just particularly dense?
  - olalonde 14y ago
    It's the first time I hear someone claim this regarding the US so I'm genuinely curious. Perhaps I'm dense.
    - stdbrouw 14y ago
      Fair enough, I assumed you were trolling. Apologies. WiseWeasel has your answer.
  - zackzackzack 14y ago
    Please be nice.
  - stonemetal 14y ago
    The worst drought in 60 years and there is still enough fresh clean water that I can dump it on the ground twice a week so my grass looks nice. So I doubt dense has anything to do with it.
- WiseWeasel 14y ago
  As groundwater aquifers are depleted in several of the most active regions of agricultural activity, farmland and the food it produces will be more scarce. If water usage could be reduced by 25% in these areas, the impact on their aquifers would be significant, potentially extending their lives by decades. http://academic.evergreen.edu/g/grossmaz/WORMKA/ http://academic.evergreen.edu/g/grossmaz/WORMKA/ http://www.meteor.iastate.edu/gccourse/issues/society/ogallala/ogallala.html http://www.meteor.iastate.edu/gccourse/issues/society/ogalla... http://www.utexas.edu/news/2012/05/29/groundwater/ http://www.utexas.edu/news/2012/05/29/groundwater/ http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v488/n7410/full/nature11295.html?WT.ec_id=NATURE-20120809 http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v488/n7410/full/nature1...
- typicalrunt 14y ago
  I'll bite. You'd be surprised at the expense involved in creating clean water. In NA, we're particularly lucky to have fairly fresh drinking water, but in other parts of the world this isn't the case. However, let's focus on NA for now. Not every city is next to a glacier field, which provides some of the purest water -- mainly because it is from the rain, it is a water source, and because it is difficult to get to it which limits its pollution. The majority of people drink water that is provided by rivers and reservoirs. These sites are easy to get to, which means it is also easy to pollute them with (a) boats, (b) nature, (c) industrial pollutants... the list goes on. The farther the water travels, the more likely it is that it will pick up pollutants. The water that comes out of your tap has some fairly strict healthy and safety laws attached to it, keeping it fairly pure to drink. Even then, there are a lot of nasty bugs in there. Just about every household tap requires water to be potable, which means safe for human consumption. That water you are washing your car with? Drinking water. Sure, it doesn't taste Brita-fresh, but you can still drink it without getting dysentery. So....my point to all this is that access to fresh, clean drinking water is actually very difficult and expensive, and is best thought of as a modern world luxury. If we're putting most of that water into crops and food that will be wasted, we're slowly slitting our own throat and wasting a luxury. All the while, more and more people are occupying the same piece of land, increasing the load on the fresh water supply. Great invention of all time? Sewage systems. Before that, people used to throw EVERYTHING into the same place where they drank. There's a reason people preferred to live upstream. There's also a reason why everyone pre-1900s used to drink beer or tea (heat kills most water-borne diseases). Edit: I forgot to mention groundwater aquifers as a water source, but my point stands.
tnorthcutt 14y ago
Does the cost of food not factor in the expected scarcity of fresh water? If not, why not?
- WiseWeasel 14y ago
  It certainly does, but unstable food prices also factor into the electability of public officials.
  - tnorthcutt 14y ago
    I think I understand the gist of what you're saying, but I'm not certain. Could you elaborate?
    - WiseWeasel 14y ago
      I mean that the political establishment has a strong incentive to keep food prices relatively stable for the sake of keeping their jobs, hence why the issue would be of high priority.
      - tnorthcutt 14y ago
        In that case, we should modify the system such that the political establishment doesn't control the price of food, and let the market work, since the short term incentives of those in control clearly are not aligned with the collective long term problem.

olalonde 14y ago

Why is it a high-priority problem? edit: I am genuinely curious. All I can come up with is increasing population which doesn't seem like much of a problem since demand for food will also increase, food prices will rise and waste will diminish.

stdbrouw 14y ago
Are you going all Socratic on us, or are you just particularly dense?
- olalonde 14y ago
  It's the first time I hear someone claim this regarding the US so I'm genuinely curious. Perhaps I'm dense.
  - stdbrouw 14y ago
    Fair enough, I assumed you were trolling. Apologies. WiseWeasel has your answer.
- zackzackzack 14y ago
  Please be nice.
- stonemetal 14y ago
  The worst drought in 60 years and there is still enough fresh clean water that I can dump it on the ground twice a week so my grass looks nice. So I doubt dense has anything to do with it.
WiseWeasel 14y ago
As groundwater aquifers are depleted in several of the most active regions of agricultural activity, farmland and the food it produces will be more scarce. If water usage could be reduced by 25% in these areas, the impact on their aquifers would be significant, potentially extending their lives by decades. http://academic.evergreen.edu/g/grossmaz/WORMKA/ http://academic.evergreen.edu/g/grossmaz/WORMKA/ http://www.meteor.iastate.edu/gccourse/issues/society/ogallala/ogallala.html http://www.meteor.iastate.edu/gccourse/issues/society/ogalla... http://www.utexas.edu/news/2012/05/29/groundwater/ http://www.utexas.edu/news/2012/05/29/groundwater/ http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v488/n7410/full/nature11295.html?WT.ec_id=NATURE-20120809 http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v488/n7410/full/nature1...
typicalrunt 14y ago
I'll bite. You'd be surprised at the expense involved in creating clean water. In NA, we're particularly lucky to have fairly fresh drinking water, but in other parts of the world this isn't the case. However, let's focus on NA for now. Not every city is next to a glacier field, which provides some of the purest water -- mainly because it is from the rain, it is a water source, and because it is difficult to get to it which limits its pollution. The majority of people drink water that is provided by rivers and reservoirs. These sites are easy to get to, which means it is also easy to pollute them with (a) boats, (b) nature, (c) industrial pollutants... the list goes on. The farther the water travels, the more likely it is that it will pick up pollutants. The water that comes out of your tap has some fairly strict healthy and safety laws attached to it, keeping it fairly pure to drink. Even then, there are a lot of nasty bugs in there. Just about every household tap requires water to be potable, which means safe for human consumption. That water you are washing your car with? Drinking water. Sure, it doesn't taste Brita-fresh, but you can still drink it without getting dysentery. So....my point to all this is that access to fresh, clean drinking water is actually very difficult and expensive, and is best thought of as a modern world luxury. If we're putting most of that water into crops and food that will be wasted, we're slowly slitting our own throat and wasting a luxury. All the while, more and more people are occupying the same piece of land, increasing the load on the fresh water supply. Great invention of all time? Sewage systems. Before that, people used to throw EVERYTHING into the same place where they drank. There's a reason people preferred to live upstream. There's also a reason why everyone pre-1900s used to drink beer or tea (heat kills most water-borne diseases). Edit: I forgot to mention groundwater aquifers as a water source, but my point stands.

tnorthcutt 14y ago

Does the cost of food not factor in the expected scarcity of fresh water? If not, why not?

WiseWeasel 14y ago
It certainly does, but unstable food prices also factor into the electability of public officials.
- tnorthcutt 14y ago
  I think I understand the gist of what you're saying, but I'm not certain. Could you elaborate?
  - WiseWeasel 14y ago
    I mean that the political establishment has a strong incentive to keep food prices relatively stable for the sake of keeping their jobs, hence why the issue would be of high priority.
    - tnorthcutt 14y ago
      In that case, we should modify the system such that the political establishment doesn't control the price of food, and let the market work, since the short term incentives of those in control clearly are not aligned with the collective long term problem.