Water Footprints, Intra-National Virtual Water Flows, and Associated Sustainability Related to Pork Production and Consumption: A Case for China

Abstract

Growth in water consumption with intensified virtual water (VW) flows from increased production and consumption of both meat and feed crops threatens the sustainability of water resources in water-scarce countries and export regions. However, a sustainability assessment of both water footprints (WFs) and VW flows related to animal products at a subnational scale is lacking. Here we estimate direct and indirect WFs as well as the inter-provincial VW flows associated with pork production and consumption in China for the years 2008 and 2017. The contributions of feed crop production and consumption were identified. Both life cycle assessment and WF network frameworks were applied to evaluate the sustainability of blue WF and VW flows. Results show that the national annual consumptive (green-blue) WF and degradative (gray) WF of pork production increased by 8.7% and 15.8%, respectively. More than 80% of the blue WF in pork production was unsustainable. By 2017, 62% of the unsustainable blue WF and 64% of the water scarcity footprints of pork production in the south resulted from consuming the feed crops from the north. This analysis highlights the importance and provides feasible approaches to uncover remote geographical effects on regional water scarcities from different steps in the value chains of livestock products.