How to Make the Food System More Energy Efficient (preview)

Feature Articles | Energy & Sustainability See Inside

Changes in agriculture, policy and personal behaviors can reduce the energy a nation uses to feed itself and the greenhouse gases it emits

By Michael E. Webber ?| December 29, 2011?|

Image: Photograph by Dan Saelinger

In Brief

• About 10 percent of U.S. energy consumption is for raising, distributing, processing, preparing and preserving the plant and animal matter Americans eat.
• Energy use can be cut by converting agricultural waste such as manure into power; implementing new, pilot-level farming techniques such as drip irrigation, no-till planting, laser-leveling of fields and GPS-driven machinery; reducing spoiled and wasted food, which amounts to 25 to 30 percent of all food produced; and eating less meat, which is energy-intensive to create.
• The same steps would make our bodies, and our ecosystems, healthier.

For more than 50 years fossil fuels and fertilizers have been the key ingredients in much greater global food production and distribution. The food-energy relationship has been a good one, but it is now entering a new era. Food production is rising sharply, requiring more carbon-based fuels and nitrogen-based fertilizers, both of which exacerbate global warming, river and ocean pollution, and a host of other ills. At the same time, many nations are grappling with how to reduce energy demand, especially demand for fossil fuels.

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