With water consumption increasing on every continent, the agricultural industry has an important issue in front of them: Will there continue to be enough water of suitable quality for agricultural production for the foreseeable future? Daniel Snow, director of the Nebraska Water Sciences Laboratory at University of Nebraska, posed this question at the IAFP annual meeting earlier this month.
Worldwide, it is estimated that the availability of freshwater (annual per capita) is just 1700 m3. According to the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, when this figure drops below 1000 m3 it puts pressure on not only on the economy but also on human health.
It's not all doom and gloom, said Snow. The upside to the issue: "We know enough now that we can start to understand the system and hopefully control the contaminants when producing food," he said. The larger concern is determining which emerging contaminants pose the most significant problem.
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