Water availability footprint of milk and milk products from large-scale dairy production systems in Northeast China

As China's dairy consumption grows, both the domestic milk production and the importation of dairy products are increasing to meet demand. As a first step toward understanding the environmental impacts of water use in the expanding Chinese dairy industry, life cycle assessment (LCA) was used to calculate the water availability footprint for large-scale production systems in Heilongjiang, a major production region. Comparisons were also made with imported products from the US (California) and New Zealand. The water footprint of milk (cradle to farm gate) produced in Heilongjiang was around 11 L H2Oe (H2O-equivalents) kg−1 fat-protein-corrected milk (FPCM). This compared to 461 and 0.01 L H2Oe kg−1 FPCM for production in California and New Zealand respectively. Accordingly, the water footprints of milk products (cradle to factory gate) produced in Heilongjiang were much lower than those imported from California, but higher than those from New Zealand. From a food industry perspective, shifting the sourcing of dairy products from California to New Zealand or Heilongjiang could greatly reduce the associated life cycle water footprints of dairy-based processed foods. These results highlight that dairy products can be produced with minimal potential to contribute to freshwater scarcity. However, dairy production systems vary, both in production pattern and local environmental context. With the expansion of dairy farming in China, the development of farming systems with high consumptive water requirements should be avoided in water-stressed regions.