University of California, Merced graduate student Lorenzo Booth is hoping that his water footprinting research will help local growers find ways to use water more efficiently by allowing them to compare water usage for different crops in different locations. “The idea is to compare agricultural water use based on symmetrical water footprints, which represent the volume of water that is incorporated into a unit of food,” said Booth. “We need to know how much water it takes to grow the particular plant and how much food items can be produced by the particular plant.