Food for thought: How energy is squandered in food industry

[somone]

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/2011-05-01-cnbc-us-squanders-energy-in-food-chain_n.htm

Food for thought: How energy is squandered in food industry
By Shelly K. Schwartz, CNBC.com

For a nation fixated on the responsible use of resources, we're surprisingly wasteful with energy when it comes to putting food on the table. From the diesel fuel tractors that harvest our crops, to the refrigerated trucks that transport products cross-country, to the labor-saving technology found in the home such as toasters and self-cleaning ovens, the U.S. food system is about as energy inefficient as it gets. And it's only getting worse.

A fall 2010 report by the Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service, ERS, called "Fuel for Food: Energy Use in the U.S. Food System," found that while energy consumption per capita fell by 1 percent between 2002 and 2007, food-related energy use grew nearly 8 percent, as the food industry relied on more energy-intensive technologies to produce more food for more people.

Between 1997 and 2002, in fact, over 80 percent of the increase in annual U.S. energy consumption was food related. And estimates for 2007 suggest the U.S. food system accounted for nearly 16 percent of the nation's total energy budget, up from 14.4 percent in 2002, according to the report, which measured both the direct energy used to power machines and appliances (like trucks and microwave ovens) as well as the "embodied" energy used to manufacture, store and distribute food products.

"This is what they call a fossil fuel party," says Kamyar Enshayan, director of the Center for Energy & Environmental Education at the University of Northern Iowa. "We've created a food system that relies heavily on fossil energy, and it's become so globalized that there are literally grapes from South Africa in the grocery store in Cedar Falls, Iowa. It's a long-distance shipping economy, which makes all of us vulnerable to disruptions in the supply chain and other unforeseen emergencies."...

[BanzaiBonnie]

1. When the Earth becomes too poisoned

to support human life, all of our other differences, big and small, will suddenly seem trivial.

If every day more citizens of the USA are unable to earn a dependable living, unable to feed their children a proper, nourishing diet and provide for their education, unable to afford healthcare and housing for their families, then We, The People, must unite to impose our solutions upon our “leaders”.
For if we do not unite to restore and detoxify this planet, we will certainly be united in our extinction.

<snip>

Idea for President

This idea is intended to make our country stronger, our employment more certain, our people healthier, to reduce our need for healthcare, and to begin to return our environment to a state where it does not sicken us and can sustain all life forever.

We cannot change the needs of the environment to adapt to the needs of the economy. When our environmental safety is at odds with our economic safety, we must begin to transform our economic needs to adapt to the needs of the environment.

United States Life Corps
The centerpiece of the Idea is the creation of a new, national volunteer service, independent of the military but based on a similar model of discipline and chain-of-command. But this service will be devoted to teaching and demonstrating the theory and technique of sustainable, poison-free farming, and to repairing our damaged environment.
It will provide a way a person can perform service for their country that is based on a different, but no less important sort of national security.

The point is to create an opportunity to bring back the local family farm in circumstances where it can work again, and to train some recruits to do the work necessary to make a start toward environmental restoration.

I suggest we call it the United States Life Corps.

http://www.ideaforpresident.com/

[Terry in Austin]

2. Ten calories of oil for every calorie of food

That's what it takes. Food for thought, indeed.

If you view it as an ecological system, it's fair to say that the human population has petroleum as its primary food supply.

It's a textbook case, then: as food supply increases, population increases; as food supply diminishes, so does population.

But the devil is in the details...

:evilgrin:

[RC]

3. And the oil is running out, but hardly anyone is listening.

[Vinnie From Indy]

4. Look for change in the next decades

The change will not be from any benevolent, sensible plan, it will be from neccessity. It is like global warming in many respects. The Exxon-Mobil, Koch Bros. funded "anti-science" that is being rained down on the world becomes a bit irrelevant when Mother Nature reacts. Our ecosystem does not register nor react to even the most brilliant propaganda efforts. Unprecedented severity of storm activity, floods, droughts and the rest will not abate.

Food will again become more localized in origin. Count on it!

[txlibdem]

7. I'd like to add that fresh, clean water will become more scarce in the coming decades

Our current farming techniques waste 95% of the water it uses, and agriculture consumes 70% of the fresh water used by humans.

"Water for farming: Running dry
The world has a water shortage, not a food shortage

Sep 18th 2008 | from the print edition

*
*

MOST people may drink only two litres of water a day, but they consume about 3,000 if the water that goes into their food is taken into account."
... from http://www.economist.com/node/12260907

This will need to change and localized food production is the best way to solve both the wasted energy and wasted water for food production. Greenhouses that use hydroponic or aeroponic growing methods need 1/20th the water and can be placed on rooftops or close to cities to reduce the energy used to transport -- and eliminates the petroleum used in tilling, planting, cultivating and harvesting.

Another concept that could provide a solution is Vertical Farming, the brainchild of Dixon Despomier.

Ref:
http://www.brightfarmsystems.com/
http://www.planmygreen.com/eco-projects/rooftop-greenhouses/
http://www.verticalfarm.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertical_farming

[buddysmellgood]

5. I remember my mom talking about what a treat it was to get

fruits and vegetables out of season when she was a girl.

[Fledermaus]

6. The food industry spends to much on fertilizer made from natural gas.

Biogas provides a way to recycle nutrients and regain some of the energy back.

[stuntcat]

8. 7+ pounds of grain are grown/shipped/nommed/pooped for each pound of meat produced.

If comfy 1st-worlders could just cut back on meat, just by half, it would save so much land and energy.

I have overweight, well-off in-laws who eat meat allll day and could not conceive of making any sacrifice in their unhealthy diets to give the billion babies a lil brighter future.