Virtual water trade among world countries associated with food trade

Human activities affect the environment via emissions of greenhouse gases leading to climate change, pollution, and use of natural resources. Agriculture plays a major role in all these aspects and is notably responsible for 90% of global anthropogenic freshwater consumption. With globalization and growing urbanization, food trade has rapidly increased in recent decades. Thus, countries virtually exchange increasing amounts of water resources by physically trading water-intensive food commodities. This text summarizes recent literature of virtual water trade via international food trade, its evolution and the variability of water use and trade links in space and time, before highlighting some of the key avenues for future research in this area.