Food vs. Water?

On Sunday I returned to Boston after a wonderful (although too brief) vacation at home to celebrate Thanksgiving. The days were filled with family, friends, laughter, love, and, of course, lots of delicious food! So after this joyous food-centered holiday, I thought it would only be appropriate to talk a bit about water and food: a love-hate relationship.

While food and water are both life necessities, producing food can negatively affect the accessibility of water. Agricultural use accounts for the majority of world water consumption, using over 70 percent of fresh water throughout the world. According to the UN, "The daily drinking water requirement per person is 2-4 litres, but it takes 2,000 to 5,000 litres of water to produce one person's daily food". And with a growing world population, food demands are only going to increase. So how do we reconcile this growing need for food with a water supply that is already unable to meet current demands?

Well we can't decrease food production or even realistically keep it level. Instead, as we increase food production we have to be smart about it:

Firstly, we should be growing food in crop-appropriate climates. For instance, we should not be growing near half of the country’s fruits and vegetables in Southern California, which is essentially a desert.
Secondly, we should be targeting drought-resistant crops for our driest agricultural areas. If a crop requires significant water inputs, it should not grow in an area with little rain.
Thirdly, newer and more efficient irrigation techniques (such as drip irrigation) should be used so that runoff and wasted water are minimized.
Lastly, there's something to be said for eating more produce and less meat as animals require significantly greater water inputs. While it takes 1,000-3,000 liters of water to produce one kilogram of rice, 13,000 to 15,000 liters are needed for one kilogram of grain-fed beef.

I'm no expert on this topic, but I do feel it's an important one. Those are my thoughts for now. Anyone else?