The food-water nexus: irrigation water quality, risks to food safety, and the need for a systems-based preventive approach.

T his year’s World Water Day focused on the food-water nexus with the theme “Water and Food Security: The World is Thirsty Because We are Hungry.” While much of the emphasis under this theme focused on the quantities of water used for food produc­ tion, the quality of water is also important to that function. Water quality can also have sig­ nificant effects on health. In this context, the quality of irrigation water can have profound impacts on the microbiological integrity of food. Irrigation water has been implicated as a