How Much Water Really Goes Into Making That?

A screenshot of the New York Times’s feature.

Every few weeks, a new story pops up claiming that (fill in the blank) requires an ungodly amount of scarce California water to produce. Avocados, almonds, and steaks have all taken the fall. And the L.A. Times’s recent interactive lets you build a plate of food so you can see exactly how much water goes into your meal.

Now the New York Times has a new feature revealing exactly how much water the primary crops of California really require. “California farmers produce more than a third of the nation’s vegetables and two-thirds of its fruits and nuts,” the story explains. “To do that, they use nearly 80 percent of all the water consumed in the state.”

See the New York Times’ interactive here.

The Times breaks the list down into categories (“Water Guzzlers,” “Grown Mostly in California,” and “Least Water Consumption”), so you can scan it and feel either really bad about your dietary habits, or somewhat less bad.

The most shocking item under “Water Guzzlers” is milk, which requires 143 gallons of water to produce just four glasses worth. Then there’s beef: 1.75 ounces of beef requires 86 gallons of water. Also astounding? Almonds require 15.3 gallons for 16 nuts, and avocados 4.1 gallons to create a single sliver.

On the other side of the scale, an asparagus tip requires a mere .22 gallons. Even less? A single blueberry requires only .04 gallons of water, and a half raspberry takes .08 gallons.

The feature also predicts the implications of the drought: We’ll either be forced to pay higher prices for the same products from farther flung places, or go without our avocado and almond smoothies.

The rest of the list is fascinating and worth a read. Why should we care? The New York Times boils it down for us: “To fundamentally alter how much water the state uses, all Americans may have to give something up.”

More food thought thought:

McDonald’s CEO says he’s proud of pay hikes

Meet the farmer who’s helping Chipotle go organic

Will Ben & Jerry’s help improve dairy worker’s conditions?

Will you change your eating habits because of the California water crisis? Let us know below.