MSU sustainability expert highlights link between Michigan water use, agriculture, and global trade
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EmailRecent debates over tariffs have focused primarily on economics, but they also demonstrate how trade decisions can carry unintended consequences for water use and environmental systems worldwide.
Michigan’s 2024 corn, soybean, and wheat exports contain an estimated 4.18 trillion gallons of virtual water—the water used to grow these crops. Major trade partners include China, Canada, and Mexico.
Dr. Jianguo “Jack” Liu, a sustainability scientist at Michigan State University and recent inductee into the National Academy of Sciences, has spent decades studying the connection between human and natural systems. His telecoupling framework explores socioeconomic and environmental relationships across distances, a perspective that helps to explain how Michigan’s water interacts with trade, climate, and resource use globally.
The full story by Aja Witt is available here.
