21st October 2026
Limited water and land
“Aside from contributing to climate change, food production has substantial environmental impacts that tend to receive a lot less attention. Most obviously, it takes up an awful lot of land, and its extent continues to grow. Pristine, biodiverse habitats such as rain forests continue to be converted into dull, pesticide-soaked monocultures of soy beans or oil palms, or overgrazed, arid pastures.”
But “One way to reduce our global footprint is by consuming foods that require less land….vegetables, most fruits and wine….”(P47 Eat the Planet Well)
However it is not just land that crops need but water too. How much crops need varies across the range whilst the availability of water across the globe also varies. Sensibly one wouldn’t grow thirsty crops in areas of low rainfall or where there isn’t a guarantee of sufficient water from rivers or aquifers. (These latter cannot supply infinite amounts of water). And climate change is rapidly changing how much water might be available and when.
Agriculture may not be an issue in taking too much water from limited supplies, it may also have a detrimental effect on those very water supplies as the run off from the land can carry with it pollutants from pesticides and herbicides, from fertilisers and from slurry.
Again it is meat and dairy that are the main large consumers of water with fruit, vegetables and pulses being much less needy. However olive oil and nuts – together with cheese – can use even more water per kg of food produced. Some olive and nut orchards rely heavily on irrigation and their produce is best avoided, whilst others are grown in regions where farmers can simply rely on rainwater – Goulson recommends rain fed olives from Portugal and southern Spain, as well as walnuts (they need no irrigations) and Brazil nuts – ditto as they grow in rainforests. W
Climate change may yet require further shifts in where such foods are grown. But eating more plants and less meat and dairy is a good move.
