Virtual Water: Implications for Agriculture and Trade (Routledge Special Issues on Water Policy and Governance)

Virtual Water explores the role of "virtual water" – the water embedded in a product – in ongoing conversations of agriculture, trade and sustainability in an increasingly inter-connected world.

A pervasive theme throughout the book is the general lack of knowledge of the use of water in producing and consuming food. The chapters, arising from a workshop supported by the OECD Co-operative Research Programme: Biological Resources Management for Sustainable Agricultural Systems, on virtual water, agriculture and trade at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, consider questions of gaps in knowledge, why sustainability matters and the policy implications of virtual water trade. Contributors show how water is a lens through which to examine an array of vital issues facing humanity and the planet: human and animal health; food production; environmental management; resource consumption; climate change adaptation and mitigation; economic development, trade and competitiveness; and ethics and consumer trust.

Virtual Water will be of great interest to scholars of water, resource management and consumption, the environmental aspects of development, agriculture and food production.

It originally published as a special issue of Water International.

Chittaranjan Ray serves as the Director of Nebraska Water Center at Robert B. Daugherty Water for Food Institute at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, USA, and is a Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering. Besides his leadership role in water at the university, his research focuses on water quality impacts from agriculture.

David McInnes is Principal of DMci Strategies, where he is a Strategic Advisor, Speaker and Facilitator on change and opportunity facing the global food system. He is also a Senior Fellow at Canada 2020, an independent, progressive think-tank, where he leads the Canada Food Brand project. Dr McInnes is also a Contributing Editor of The Economist Intelligence Unit, and an Advisor to the Delegation of Canada for the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture.

Matthew R. Sanderson is the Randall C. Hill Distinguished Professor of Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work at Kansas State University, Manhattan, USA. His research focuses on the demographic and environmental aspects of development in global political-economic context.