Water footprint

We will all have heard about the carbon footprint I am sure .Now though there is talk of evaluating activity that puts a strain on our water too. Companies able to ‘cover up ‘ their excessive use of fossil  fuel  by buying another companies, or even countries ‘quota’ will probably do the same with the water .

 Developed countries although having minor problems of water being possibly too alkaline or acid and lacking this or that mineral at least have clean water.  In the UK we have some of the cleanest water in the world. Considering how many thousands of people die every day from basically dirty water around the world this precious commodity should be available for all ,free and clean . The parable of the Final Judgement with the statement from our Lord “when I was thirsty you did not give me a drink” , clearly would have been referring to water that would preserve life and NOT to dirty water bringing death!

In the UK we are often referred to as ‘The green and Pleasant’ land due to the high rainfall we have which gives grass the chance to flourish for at least 8 months of the year. Actually this winter after some of my cattle got into a paddock with lush grass in October,   20mm or so of grass grew in that paddock in the month of November leading to a bright green colour again .This was due to the  very mild temperatures  allowing the grass to grow again, something that would never usually take place in winter. Global warming ? Yes and no in my opinion for records can show such weather fluxuations in past decades and centuries.

Back to the ‘water footprint.’ Parts of the UK this year are being put on water restrictions for they have only received  a half or so of what they should have received rain wise .Some winter sown wheat or barley has not developed sufficient root systems to allow a viable crop with the great expense of re-seeding  needed . There is even talk of piping water from the wetter Scottish regions to the middle of the UK yet often this is too expensive. We do not have a situation like say in eastern Kenya where in some regions NO rain has fallen for years and where crops were grown in the past. Where there is the chance to extract water the question comes ,who should have first call on this ? Those with private swimming pools !!! Seriously though although humans should have first call(for drinking ,irrigation ,domestic use) this is not always the case in some countries.

British agriculture only uses 1% of the total water used in the UK yet many farmers who have been used to putting millions of litres of water on their fields will not be able to .As our potato  farmers  use 40% of this 1% then they will be hit hard. Lack of water will cause higher sugar levels in the smaller sized potato and more imperfections on the skin of the potato (kind of scab).

BUT as we do not have to have potatoes in our diet (Sir Francis Drake the ‘pirate’(in my opinion) from the 17 Century only introduced this gem to us (or was it  Captain Cook?) .Anyhow my point is we do not have to in the UK eat potatoes . The farming industry in the UK contributes only 1-2% to Britain’s  GDP  and employs less than 2% of those who are in work. Sadly, very sadly British Agriculture is not that significant . For past few years on average there has been 1 dairy farmer going out of business each  day . This has led to bigger dairy units only propped up by subsidy. I say propped up for it costs (averages ) about 22p to produced each litre  of milk yet the price from the supermarkerts paid to farmers is from 20 to 22p a litre. So costing more to produce than what it is sold for . NO other business could survive this but farmers get large subsidies from their government based on the amount of LAND they have. In the EU it is the same and basically we are not in the real world . Lamb prices are up at present with a good 40kg lamb going for up to £70- £100 YET like I used to point out to my students, when lecturing in livestock production the following . Once the feed costs , medication , labour costs are subtracted the actual profit to the farmer from one lamb can be as little as £5 . Any shepherd  in the UK therefore  would have to keep a flock of many thousands to make this worthwhile. Some do keep such large flocks yet others don’t and do other farming activities and instead rely on the subsidies. Talking of lambs I had better go and check my small flock  as they are due to lamb soon and the sun has been up for over an hour