Individualized Livestock Production

Title

Water Footprint Assessment of meat and dairy products

Acronym

WFP

Start

01.01.2014

End

31.12.2015

Coordinating Institute

Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária

Coordinator

Contact

Partner

Summary

In any national or international forum that the competitiveness of Brazilian livestock is being discussed, the natural resource that appears to have a big differential is water. Brazil is rich in this resource, however preserving and conserving it in quality and quantity is strategic for the maintenance of that competitiveness. The worldwide and national water use verified for the beef and dairy cattle, the concentration of livestock in some Brazilian regions, the present and future conflicts over water, the large negative impact that livestock can have on water resources, the point and non-point nature of these impacts, and the need to work with a systems approach all must be addressed if livestock production is to be sustainable in Brazil. There have already been significant evolution in the development of Brazilian livestock production. At the moment we shall need a new leap in progress toward sustainability through considering the water management of these activities. The knowledge of water flows will provide a more profitable and socially animal agriculture; by ensuring the production is not solely a resource exploiter, but is understood as an efficient and effective transformer of elements and nutrients into food. In the last twenty years, researchers have developed metrics to help the characterization of environmental, social and economic issues associated with the use of water resources in production. The metrics are fundamental to evaluating the performance of human activities and relevant to both producers and consumers. Water Footprint Assessment is a methodology that produces this kind of information and supports fair and smart decisions about water use.

Funding