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Abstract:
Globally, freshwater systems are degrading due to excessive water withdrawals. We estimate that if
rivers’ environmental flow requirements were protected, the associated decrease in irrigation water
availability would reduce global yields by ~5%. As one option to increase food supply within limited
water resources, we show that dietary changes towards less livestock products could compensate for
this effect. If all currently grown edible feed was directly consumed by humans, we estimate that global
food supply would even increase by 19%. We thus provide evidence that dietary changes are an
important strategy to harmonize river flow protection with sustained food supply.
