 Oil, coal,
and natural gas are collectively known as fossil fuels. Today,
eighty-five percent of all energy produced in the United States
comes from burning these fuels. That energy powers almost
two-thirds of our electricity and virtually all of our
transportation.i
There are a number of problems associated with fossil
fuels, most of which stem from the by-products created when they
are burned to create energy. Chief among those byproducts are
carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide, greenhouse gases that are
major contributors to global
warming . Largely because of coal and petroleum combustion, the
amount of carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide in the air today are
thirty-five percent and eighteen percent higher, respectively,
than they were before the industrial era.iii Other
byproducts of fossil fuel combustion include sulfur oxides and
nitrogen oxides, both of which contribute to acid rain, and
hydrocarbons, which can react with nitrogen oxides to form smog.iv
In addition to their environmental
harm, the byproducts of burning fossil fuels can cause health
problems for humans . Nitrogen oxides,
for instance, irritate the lungs.v Particulate matter
such as soot and dust contribute to respiratory illness and
cardiac problems, including arrhythmias and heart attacks.vi
Fossil fuel dependence also damages the health of our
nation. In 2004, almost sixty percent of petroleum products used
in the United States were imported from other countries.vii
And despite the fact that fossil fuels are limited resources
that cannot be replaced, the Department of Energy acknowledges
that their usage in the United States is likely only to grow
over the next century. viii This means that unless we
dramatically change the way the United States consumes energy,
our dependence on foreign sources of fossil fuels will also
grow—and increasingly threaten the stability of American
government, business, and daily life.
Fossil Fuels and
Industrial Farming
Conventional food production and distribution requires a
tremendous amount of energy—one study conducted in 2000
estimated that ten percent of the energy used annually in the
United States was consumed by the food industry.ix
Yet for all the energy we put into our food system, we
don’t get very much out. A 2002 study from the John
Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health estimated that, using
our current system, three calories of energy were needed to
create one calorie of edible food. And that was on average. Some
foods take far more, for instance grain-fed beef, which requires
thirty-five calories for every calorie of beef produced. x
What’s more, the John Hopkins study didn’t include
the energy used in processing and transporting food. Studies
that do estimate that it takes an average of seven to ten
calories of input energy to produce one calorie of food.xi
Accounting for most of this wasteful equation are the
industrial practices upon which our food system is built. These
include inefficient growing practices, food processing, and
storage, as well as our system of transporting foodstuffs
thousands of miles between the field and the end consumer.
Growing Practices
The biggest culprit of fossil fuel usage in industrial farming
is not transporting food or fueling machinery; it’s
chemicals. As much as forty percent of energy used in the food
system goes towards the production of artificial fertilizers and
pesticides. xii
Fertilizers are synthesized from atmospheric nitrogen and
natural gas, a process that takes a significant amount of
energy. Producing and distributing them requires an average of
5.5 gallons of fossil fuels per acre. xiii
Manure could be a more energy-efficient alternative to
synthetic fertilizers, but because it is heavy this applies only
when it can be used a short distance from where it is
produced—and our industrial system precludes this option.
xiv The problem is over-consolidation: We raise large
numbers of livestock in one place and raise the grain they eat
in other places. This means that the livestock produce an excess
of manure where there’s no cropland for it to be spread
on, making it a pollutant rather than a tool. Meanwhile, the
fields that grow feed must draw their fertility from synthetic
sources.xv We end up with concentrations of unusable
manure in one place, and concentrations of chemical fertilizers
in the other—and a whole lot of fuel wasted trucking feed
and fertilizer around the country.
The extent of this waste is
underscored by the fact that it’s largely unnecessary.
Small, pasture-based livestock farms
take advantage of natural cycles: the animals feed themselves on
grass and distribute their manure themselves, fertilizing the
pasture as they go. Rather than fossil fuels, they need only
rain and sun to make the system work.
Packaging, Processing,
and Storing Food
Approximately twenty-three percent of the energy used in our
food production system is allocated to processing and packaging
food.xvi Another thirty-two percent is burned in home
refrigeration and cooking.xvii While no study has
quantified the potential energy savings of buying
locally, the practice of eating whole foods generally decreases
the use of fossil fuels for processing, packaging, and storing
foods. (Compare all the energy and packaging behind say, a can
of tomato sauce, to simply buying some tomatoes, basil, and
garlic, and making it oneself.) If the consumer chooses to store
foods for long periods of time at home, this can often be done
in a more energy-efficient manner than commercial packagers
choose to use. One estimate suggests that reusing a glass jar
five times at home can save about half of the energy a
commercial packager uses to make five disposable containers.xviii
Food Transportation
Because industrial farming draws on the economy of scale, our
food is increasingly grown in concentration in specific areas of
the country. This is so common that it has shaped much of our
country’s geographic identities—the western Plains
are wheat country, the Midwest is the Corn Belt—but it has
reached extremes. For instance, approximately ninety percent of
all the fresh vegetables consumed in the United States are grown
in California’s San Joaquin Valley.xix
This national-scale system is possible only because it
uses large quantities of fossil fuels to transport food products
to the consumer. It is now common practice to ship food not just
around the country, but around the world. (In 2005, more than
$120 billion of agricultural products crossed U.S. borders as
imports and exports.)xx As a result, the average
American foodstuff travels an estimated 1,500 miles before being
consumed.xxi
Sustainable Farming and
Fossil Fuel Savings
The most obvious way that small, sustainable farms help reduce
the nation’s dependence on fossil fuels is by selling
their products locally. The less food has to travel, the less
fuel is needed to transport it. But sustainable farming
practices also have the potential to reduce fossil fuel
dependence by eliminating wasteful production practices. The
USDA estimates that making all our farmland’s irrigation
systems just ten percent more efficient would annually save
eighty million gallons of diesel gasoline spent on pumping and
applying the water.xxii Similarly, reducing
repetitive fertilizer application on the 250 million acres of
major cropland in the United States would save approximately one
billion dollars worth of petroleum-based fertilizers and
pesticides (not to mention prevent soil
and water pollution).xxiii
These kinds of dramatic reductions in resource consumption can
be achieved through management-intensive, sustainable farming
practices.
Exercising proper soil conservation techniques can also
help reduce fossil fuel usage. For example, the USDA estimates
that no-till farming can save about 3.9 gallons of diesel fuel
per acre of land.xxiv As the name suggests, no-till
farming means eliminating (or in some cases reducing) the
tilling of soil, which decreases the use of diesel-powered heavy
equipment.
No-till can even reverse some of the damage caused by
fossil fuel use. Plants absorb carbon from the air and bring it
down into the soil, but when farmers till, they release the
carbon back up into the air. By not tilling, that carbon stays
underground. USDA scientists estimate that if proper soil
conservation techniques were used, U.S. cropland could store
between twelve and fourteen percent of the nation’s annual
carbon emissions.xxv As pollution from fossil fuels
and other sources continues to grow, environmentally friendly
practices such as no-till farming are more necessary than ever.
Sustainable farms also take advantage of animal power to
fuel their operations. When animals graze, they feed themselves
and spread their own manure. This eliminates the need to truck feed to the animals and then truck their
manure out to fields where it is sprayed. Thus the practice of
grazing animals on pasture also decreases the amount of fuel
used to produce our food.
What You Can Do
- Buy foods grown locally. The
equation is simple: the closer the farm is to you, the less
fuel is needed to transport its food to your table. You can
find local foods through our Eat
Well Guide by visiting a local farmers
market, or by joining a food
co-op or Community Supported
Agriculture (CSA) group. See our Shop
Sustainable page for more information. And while you’re
at it, ask your grocery store to supply locally grown produce.
- Want to have lettuce that’s
truly local? Plant a garden and grow your own fresh produce!
- Avoid purchasing processed foods.
These foods take more energy to produce (and have less
nutritional value than whole foods). In addition, choose foods
with minimal packaging. This reduces the energy used to produce
the packaging and eliminates these materials from the waste
stream.
- Cut back on meat. As much as
Americans love to eat it, meat is the least fuel-efficient food
we have. Large quantities of energy are required to cultivate,
harvest, and ship animal feed, house, transport and slaughter
animals, process and package their meat, and refrigerate it
until it’s cooked.
Did You Know?
- Nitrogen-based fertilizers
contribute directly to global warming: Making and transporting
one kilogram of nitrogen in a fertilizer releases 3.7 kg of
carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.xxvi
- As bountiful as our nation’s
agriculture is, we are hardly self-sufficient. To supply the
American diet, in 2001 we imported 68.2 percent of our fish and
shellfish, 27.3 percent of confectionary products, 21.4 percent
of fruits, juices, and nuts, 15.5 percent of vegetable oils,
and 9.3 percent of red meat.xxvii
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