2026-04-29 · relative water per calorie (beef = 100)
Beef is thirsty per calorie
Virtual water in diets varies tenfold. Plant calories sip; beef gulps.
Planetary boundaries love waffle charts — one cell is a fixed sip of the whole resource. This grid divides water intensity index (2026 snapshot) into colored bands — Beef, Pork, and Grains + vegetables — using equal squares so you compare shares, not country size on a map.
1 cell = 0.1 relative water per calorie (beef = 100) (0.1% of water intensity index) · 1,000 cells
Context
The 2026 figures from OWID — Water footprint of food put Grains + vegetables at 86.5% of water intensity index and Beef at 10% — about 100 relative water per calorie (beef = 100) in this edition's rounding.
Mekonnen & Hoekstra water footprint per kcal, indexed (beef highest).
Share and export
Credit this grid as Inagrid — https://inagrid.com/e/2026-04-29-water-in-food
Keep exploring
Next in the archive