FOSSIL FUELS, FOOD AND ENERGY

ByRachel Dorfman

Oil, coal and natural gas are fossil fuels and 85 percent of our energy comes from burning these fuels. Unfortunately, burning these fuels creates problems for the environment including the creation of damaging by-products such as carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide. These harmful greenhouse gases also cause health issues for humans including respiratory and cardiac problems.*

Fossil fuel use in the United States has grown exponentially and agriculture now accounts for roughly 17 percent of all the energy used in our country.** A 2002 study done by the John Hopkins School of Public Health found that our current agricultural system uses three calories of energy to create one calorie of edible food. For grain-fed beef the number jumps to 35 calories of energy to create  one calorie of edible beef. Other factors associated with agriculture production increase the consumption of fossil fuels and the greenhouse gases that consumption causes including: pesticide chemicals, packaging, processing, storing food and food transportation.*

The local food movement is becoming popular all over the country and there are now more options for people who want to off-set the fossil fuel use of the industrial agriculture industry:

  • Buy locally grown food
  • Plant your own backyard vegetable garden
  • Avoid purchasing processed foods
  • Cut back on meat*

*http://www.sustainabletable.org/issues/energy/
**http://www.organicconsumers.org/corp/fossil-fuels.cfm