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Re: water usage infographic

Noted by on his . Last updated . Changelog


I have mixed feelings about infographics that reduce ecological footprints to single scalar non-fungible values.

Infographics like these should have a second metric for “average rainfall in areas producing required ingredients”, since water isn’t fungible. Chocolate wouldn’t look as bad then.

And a third metric for fuel required to import the food and ingredients during production. Chocolate would look bad again, since it’s typically produced far away from where cacao grows. Maybe this should be generated based on a viewer’s approximate location, to better account for shipping.

Also, this infographic ignores serving size by measuring the same mass of all these different foods. I’m not sure who buys equal masses of chocolate and rice.

(Original infographic source)