Photo Illustration by Stacker // Canva It can be hard to visualize the amount of water it takes to produce a single pound of almonds or the meat used to make a cheeseburger. Every food product goes through a long life cycle before ending up on grocery store shelves. Livestock products start at the farms that grow alfalfa, hay, and other types of feed. Tree fruits and nuts begin with the young saplings that take years to mature and produce fruit. Meanwhile, products such as radishes mature from seed as quickly as one month. No matter how long it takes for a food product to find its way to consumers, it’s consuming water every step of the way. Findbusinesses4sale used data published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and processed by Our World in Data to break down the 10 agricultural products that require the most water. Water is one of the most basic human needs, but as climate change extends droughts and groundwater gets drained, it has increasingly become a commodity. In the West, investors buy properties to secure water rights they can sell. Large-scale agriculture operations are increasingly irrigating land with pumped groundwater and impacting access for other residents. California is among one of the states hardest hit by water crises. Leading foods
The most water-intensive crops and meat
