42 Gallons Of Water To Make One Slice Of Pizza, And Other Details We Need To Know

News flash: It will take virtually 42 gallons of water to make a single single slice of pizza – 18 for the flour, 21 for the cheese and 2.five for the sauce. And a pound of chocolate? A whopping 3170 gallons.

A new guide, “Meet The Nexus: How Foods, Water and Power are Connected” by the GRACE Communications Basis aims to aid shoppers much better connect the dots to produce a more sustainable world by linking the influence of the water, vitality and food items we consume.

Of program, for individuals of us residing in drought-stricken California, the relevance of water and it’s connection to foods, is not lost. With much less than 6 inches of precipitation in 2013 in San Francisco and day right after day of sunshine all around the state, farmers and customers alike are praying for rain.

But the drought’s connection to the power we use is less effortlessly noticed by the untrained eye.

“Even in a great water year, California’s water technique utilizes twenty% of the state’s electrical energy to get that water to farms, cities and towns,” says Peter J. Hanlon, a Senior Investigation and Policy Analyst for GRACE Communications Foundation. Drought impacts lakes too, like Lake Mead, now in danger of leaving hydroelectric turbines at Hoover Dam higher and dry, unable to create electrical power for its 1.3 million buyers.

One more example of nexus contemplating can be found when talking about meals waste.  Not only does throwing out our leftovers indicate we toss 40 % of our food into the trash in the U.S., it also implies we waste one/four of all the water consumed in the nation.  Throwing out meals also outcomes in lost energy initially put into fertilizing, storing and transporting that foods.

The guidebook outlines approaches consumers can positively influence the foods, water, energy nexus.

• Lessen your food waste – buy less (and freeze extras).  Find out a lot more about “best by,” “use by” and “sell by” dates – most do not indicate that food has gone “bad” or dangerous.


• Discover out about how the farms you get from save vitality and water and reward their efforts by purchasing from them straight.


• Stop purchasing bottled water – the amount of fuel utilized to create plastic bottles (even if you then recycle them) is tremendous.


• Quit buying things – every pointless item you acquire diverts useful energy and water resources and often just ends up in the trash.

Believe tanks, companies and universities have been discussing the linkages amongst food, water and power for many years, and the Globe Economic Forum in January targeted on the “nexus” as a major location of concern for 2014.   The GRACE manual, even so, is perhaps the initial to attempt to deliver consumers into the conversation, relating the complexity of the nexus to every day actions and meals.

42 Gallons Of Water To Make One Slice Of Pizza, And Other Details We Need To Know