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Australian scientists push for water footprint food labelling06 Jan 2011Source: Stock and Land If a leading a soil and environmental scientist gets his way, Australian consumers will soon be able to identify how much water is involved in production of their favourite goods at the point of sale and identify what region the water comes from. Its all part of a push to bring about greater understanding and awareness of the water volumes used to make food and fibre products, especially on-farm and irrigated items, through the introduction of a new water labelling footprint. University of Western Australia Adjunct Professor, Dr Brent Clothier, urged the introduction of a water labelling footprint, while presenting at a recent agronomy conference in New Zealand titled “Food Security from Sustainable Agriculture”. Dr Clothier said similar successes had occurred in driving down energy usage, through introduction of the Energy Star rating system. Energy Star is an international standard for energy use efficiency for home and business electronic equipment, created by the US Environmental Protection Agency in 1992 and now used by several countries around the world, including Australia. Dr Clothier said the introduction of water footprint would increase consumer awareness of water use and encourage the purchase and subsequent production of more water efficient products. He said agriculture was by far the largest user of fresh water in Australia and New Zealand, providing both countries with challenges to use less irrigated water. The National Association of Retail Grocers of Australia Chairman John Cummings said the water labelling concept was worth looking into and that similar systems were already used in Europe. Read more here |
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