World Water Day: The Surprising Amount Of Water Required To Produce 13 Items From Chocolate To Wine

March 22 is World Water Day, and there is no better day to become more conscious about the items you use and consume, and just how much water is needed to produce them.

Our friends at The Nature Conservancy have been counting down to World Water Day with the "30 Days Of H2O," providing a fascinating -- and often shocking -- new tidbit each day about how much water certain things require, from cars and plastic to cheeseburgers and coffee.

We've rounded up the best of the bunch, and you'll likely be surprised. What do you think takes more water to make: a glass of wine or a serving of chocolate? Find out below!

Be sure to check out the rest of HuffPost's World Water Day coverage, including tips to save water & money (submit your own), 8 ways to get involved and help, and the nations most at risk. Also, be sure to visit The Nature Conservancy to find more info about the hidden cost of water that goes into producing items like the 13 listed below.

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Cup Of Coffee

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It takes 37 gallons of water to make a cup of coffee.

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It takes 37 gallons of water to make a cup of coffee.

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Mirabai305 said on 22 Tuesday 2011 pm31 10:59 pm: 82.7% of all statistics are made up on the spot.

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Comments

[Brooklynindy]

08:33 AM on 04/22/2011

This is way too facile....very sloppy journalism. 37 gallons of water for a cup of coffee, but you 1) don't bother to tell us if this is 37 gallons of rain that falls on the coffee bush in the mountains, is this during the cleaning and rest of the processing, or what. 2) So all this water is used to make the products. And? Does it then disappear forever? No.

In some of the examples cited, the water may become contaiminated, or may be drawn from non-replenishable sources, or it may be drawn from depleted aquifers, but you mention none of that as a background. Huffpo, you've got a long way to go to make the big leagues, unless you're only aspiring to rise to Fox's level.

[montex]

11:58 PM on 04/11/2011

These are interesting claims, but they don't tell us much. There is nothing to give the reader any idea where these numbers came from. How is a skeptic supposed to confirm or deny these finding? Oh, that's right. We're just supposed to "believe" in what ever is posted.

Science doesn't work like that. Journalism shouldn't work like that and the only people benefitting from this article are not interested in what the truth is, only to push a political agenda.

[sunsetter]

05:27 PM on 03/26/2011

Things aren't what they appear, are they. Coffee and the demand form all the shops look like they are sucking up more than their fair share of water as well. Looks like all the eco friendly cotton is a waste of water. We should all wear hefty bags.

[Brooklynindy]

08:37 AM on 04/22/2011

All this depends on where the water is drawn from, for starters. If they're referring to the heavy rains that fall in the mountains where coffee is grown, well, it's hard to make a case that they're "sucking up more than their fair share..." This piece is sloppy, and you can't draw any conclusions from it.

[SamKnause]

11:03 AM on 03/26/2011

Hemp farming could help with many of these issues.

Hemp requires little water and no pesticides.

All plastics could be made from hemp.

Cotton requires massive amounts of water and pesticides.

Hemp material could replace cotton.

Hemp material outlasts cotton 5 to 1.

Hemp is a amazing plant that cleans the air better than forests.

1 acre of hemp equals four acres of trees.

When will the U.S. citizens demand hemp farming be legalized, and encourage our farmers to grow it ?

[grumpyfarmer]

12:45 AM on 03/24/2011

I can't speak for manufactured items, but the amount of water for the various food products is mostly BS, because it assumes that rainfall on cropland, pastures, and orchards is lost forever, it is not. It is recycled courtesy of the water cycle.

[DrMandible]

09:23 AM on 03/24/2011

Very true. Though I would caution that much of the water recovered from CAFO beef production is highly toxic and extremely damaging to local ecosystems.

[jammers046]

12:23 PM on 03/24/2011

You mean the hormones? Anything else injected into them? I'm curious.

[jammers046]

12:24 PM on 03/24/2011

I agree to most of the extent, however water delivery does have a cost also, mostly the electricity and maybe some gas?

[Anna florentine]

11:16 PM on 03/23/2011

Shocking! Thank you for this information. So how as a culture can we changed such ingrained habits that are prevalent in all our life styles? ?

[barrada nicto]

04:04 AM on 04/11/2011

Sorry, it's going to take larger government. Not in vogue right now.

[BBCo]

04:03 PM on 03/23/2011

This article does a terrible job of explaining how they get their facts, they shouldn't expect people to understand what the point is, if they don't give us the whole story. Also, I think anyone who agrees with this already knows how wasteful people can be and doesn't need to be told again, and anyone who thinks everything is rosy and we have nothing to worry about (except some liberal agenda) is not going to be swayed by any amount of scientific evidence if it contradicts their beliefs. Either way, I guess the point of this article is that usable(key word here) water is becoming scarcer, here are some things we bet you didn't know consume a lot of water.

[RJKERB08]

03:50 PM on 03/23/2011

It also takes a million gallons of water to invent facts to morally support your lifestyle.

[jammers046]

12:25 PM on 03/24/2011

?

[cofactory]

11:54 AM on 03/23/2011

These numbers are useless if their methods aren't explained. The numbers seem arbitrary and undefined. cotton t-shirt 400 cotton jeans 1800, Beef 1500 gallons burger 648. And the 72 gallons for 2 eggs just seems ridiculous.

[satanlite]

12:32 PM on 03/23/2011

Just 12 gallons for an apple? Something doesn't sound right .... doest taht count the water required to raise the tree until it produces that apple? huh?

[Jack Davies]

12:35 PM on 03/23/2011

What they did was add in various water usage for the bad stuff that they did not for the good stuff, and most likely had numerous unverified sources they went to for their stats. They most def did not do their own homework, nor were they in any way fair or balanced.

The hamburgers vs the pound of beef alone should make sane people stop and question the truth of this.

[jammers046]

12:27 PM on 03/24/2011

? A hamburger is not necessarily a pound of beef. Perhaps a 1/4 pounder is the assumption. Also, add lettuce, tomato, bread... There is a lack of cites for their stats though...

[LALC]

11:48 AM on 03/23/2011

So, this article suggests, in a round-about way, 1 more reason to give up junk food. And since we can't consume plastic bottles & other plastics, it looks like wine is the way to go!! Oh shucks!

[LALC]

11:52 AM on 03/23/2011

Seems I missed the cereal & milk, oh well!

[satanlite]

12:33 PM on 03/23/2011

You can consume plastic. But only one time.

[LALC]

12:36 PM on 03/23/2011

Hahaha! I guess that would really save a lot of money in the long run.

[1tiel]

01:03 PM on 03/23/2011

Yes: Eat Plastic and help to combat overpopulation...

No, but seriously, don't do that...

[swancj]

11:21 AM on 03/23/2011

I would like to see the data for these stats. It is very different to go to a store and buy eggs, than it is to have ducks/chickens in the back yard. If they are claiming that to keep a duck alive for two days, in which time it will produce two eggs - requires 72 gallons of water....they are full of something other than duck poop.

[LALC]

11:50 AM on 03/23/2011

Unless it takes 72 gallons to wash two eggs in the "egg plant"!!

[Vandercule]

02:16 AM on 03/23/2011

Wow! That's even more water than that needed to produce Ethanol. But, Ethanol has it beat in one stat. It takes a hundred times more water to put out a fire involving Ethanol than an equivalent fie involving oil.

[OkieMon]

10:37 AM on 03/23/2011

oil company propaganda...you put these fires out with foam....check out the racing indy league that uses ethanol...even nascar is starting to use ethanol fuel...

[imtheknife]

11:55 AM on 03/23/2011

prop·a·gan·da
–noun
1.
information, ideas, or rumors deliberately spread widely to help or harm a person, group, movement, institution, nation, etc.
- http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/propaganda

if the statistic is true, it is not propaganda. "you put these fires out with foam" may reflect the most efficient method available, but you use water if you're comparing how much water it takes to put out that type of fire.

you also don't put out oil fires with water, but who's counting? (meaning there are much more effective and safer methods available, although an oil fire CAN be extinguished with water, just as an ethanol fire can).

so few people really THINK about the words they're using, and what they're really saying.

[satanlite]

12:33 PM on 03/23/2011

Nonsense.
 
Fox Viewer.

[rodjard]

01:26 AM on 03/23/2011

I am amazed at the notion that fluoride has been
allowed to be put in our water.
Scientific facts seem to be politicizes and
corporatized so much as to be propeganda
to suite a special interest. How does this happen?
We drink this stuff everyday. It is poison. Why
ca't all these people get this in their heads.
I don't get it. Flouride is poison.

[Vandercule]

02:20 AM on 03/23/2011

That's the Liberals for you. Never accuse a Liberal of thinking things through.
Take that car that Liberals push as the Earth's salvation--the Prius. The batteries of the Wunder Car are beginning to fade. We will now have to build hundreds of new toxic dumps in which to bury them. They have a half-life of a thousand years.

And how about that GM Volt. If you live in a 10-story apartment building--wow! What a long extension cord you will need. And they my have to build more coal burning plants to produce the electricity to charge it. But, Hey! Why lets facts stand in the way of saving the planet als Al Gore..

[rodjard]

02:35 AM on 03/23/2011

Scientific facts are neither Liberal or Conservative
Thinking so is part of the problem. They are not
something to choose to believe in or be twisted
to compliment a corporate, religious, or political
agenda.

[gnomechomsky]

09:53 AM on 03/23/2011

As opposed to the calm, sensible right winger who listens to the Glenn Beck and his doomsday prophecies? Or the grounded-in-reality Alex Jones? Or the calm-and-collected Rush Limbaugh? Or the astute and stoic Sarah "Drill Baby, Drill" Palin.

Yeah you right wingers (I hesitate to use the term Conservative) have a monopoly on level-headed thought.

[Finlay Elhaz Craig]

03:01 AM on 03/23/2011

You have to drink a massive amount at once for it to be harmful.
"Everything is poison, there is poison in everything. Only the dose makes a thing not a poison." --Paracelsus, known as the "Father of Toxicology".

[barrada nicto]

04:14 AM on 04/11/2011

Water too, is poisonous in large quantities.

[John Penland]

12:02 AM on 03/23/2011

This has to be considering the amount of water from start to finish for the product. Such as the chocolate: Takes x gallons to water the cocoa plant..etc...

[Jackalheadedgod]

11:14 PM on 03/22/2011

Why is this so hard to believe? If you have lived in California or seen Chinatown this seems pretty obvious. True though, more data needed.

Cheers,
Jack