Does food processing mitigate consumers’ concerns about crops grown with recycled water?

Abstract

1 1. Introduction Water scarcity is a growing concern in many regions of the U.S. and across the world. Currently, 4 billion people worldwide, including 130 million people in the U.S., experience severe water shortages at least part of the year (Mekonnen and Hoekstra, 2016). Projected growth in populations and food demand, coupled with rising temperatures and changing weather patterns, will further strain available water resources. These issues pose a serious challenge for the agricultural sector, which currently uses more than 70% of the world's fresh water resources for irrigation (World Water Assessment Programme, 2016). In the U.S., the agricultural sector is responsible for 80% of the country's total water consumption and 90% of total water consumption in most western states (U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2017). Furthermore, global agricultural output is projected to double in the next 30 years (World Bank, 2014), and therefore alternative sources of irrigation water are critically needed. Recycled water has emerged as a safe and cost-effective way to provide for the growing 1 demand for irrigation water around the world (Chen et al., 2013). Countries such as Israel and Australia have been using recycled irrigation water for decades, but its use by U.S. agricultural producers has been modest. Though 32 billion gallons of municipal wastewater are produced daily in the U.S. (National Research Council, 2012), only California, Florida, Arizona, and Texas augment their irrigation supplies with recycled water (McNabb, 2017). Perhaps the most According to the California Department of Water Resources (2018), "recycled water is highly treated wastewater 1 from various sources, such as domestic sewage, industrial wastewater and storm water runoff." This type of water has been referred to by several names, including reclaimed water, reused water, treated wastewater, repurified water, tertiary treated wastewater, advanced purified water, NEWater (

Recycled water reuse: what factors affect public acceptance?

“…Savchenko et al (2018) found that providing consumers with information about the risks of recycled water reduced WTP, while disclosing benefits alone did not alter consumer preferences versus proving balanced information about environmental benefits and potential health risks. Savchenko et al (2019b) found that messaging about benefits, risks or both benefits and risks had no statistically significant effects on consumers' likelihood of purchasing processed or fresh foods grown with recycled water. These contrasting outcomes illustrate the complexities involved.…”

Public Water Policy Knowledge and Policy Preferences in the American West

“…Traditional freshwater sources are drastically suffering from climate change and overuse [ 7 ], with both population growth and climate variability significantly impacting water availability around the world [ 8 ]. Around 70% of the world’s freshwater is allocated for irrigation [ 9 ]. On average, in the United States, 80% of the total water consumption per year is associated with agricultural use [ 9 ], with agriculture in the Western states accounting for 90% of total water consumption [ 9 ].…”

“…Around 70% of the world’s freshwater is allocated for irrigation [ 9 ]. On average, in the United States, 80% of the total water consumption per year is associated with agricultural use [ 9 ], with agriculture in the Western states accounting for 90% of total water consumption [ 9 ]. Historical water use in the region spurred the development of Western cities but was also the foundation of the development of the agricultural industry, with the region now providing a significant amount of agricultural products both domestically and internationally.…”

“…Research exploring variables affecting acceptance of recycled water illustrates variation among demographic groups. Regarding age, older consumers are less likely to accept the uses of recycled water than younger ones [ 9 , 12 ]. The intuition behind these findings is that older people are more concerned with health risks given their increased health concerns as older adults [ 9 ].…”

Artificial Intelligence in Functional Food Ingredient Discovery and Characterisation: A Focus on Bioactive Plant and Food Peptides

“…Market trends are demonstrating that consumers are 1) increasingly expecting robust scientific evidence for nutritional claims (Talati et al, 2016;Lin, Shih, and Lin 2017); 2) educating themselves to understand the meaning and validity of Functional Food Ingredients (FFIs) and their associated health claims (A. Zhang et al, 2020;Hartmann et al, 2018); 3) becoming confident to express their opinion regarding the safety and benefits of food products (Savchenko et al, 2019); and 4) identifying which food characteristics, such as food naturalness and sustainability, are important to them (Román, Sánchez-Siles, and Siegrist 2017). In particular, there is a need for standardisation and transparency when it comes to health claims for additives produced by food and nutrition companies.…”