The largest contributing factor to the price of food is the cost of fossil fuels. Not only are fossil fuels used to transport food, they’re used in pesticides, inorganic fertilizers, and in the machinery used to grow the food. They’re used for just-in-time delivery of perishable food items, in food additives and in the production of the containers we use to package, ship and deliver food. The 3000 mile salad is the best example of this. Transportation costs alone for salad being delivered across the country mean that 127 calories of energy (fuel) is spent on 1 calorie of energy derived from food. That’s pretty appalling, but it also states the obvious: That the price of food is correlated to the price of oil.
Unfortunately this has been obvious for quite some time to a majority of individuals who watch oil prices. Talk of peak oil makes peoples conspiracy theorist radar go ‘blip’, even though in any closed system with a finite set of resources you’re bound to run into a point where demand outstrips supply. At that point, the scarcity of your resource means higher prices, and higher prices means that people with low incomes have to either spend more money on those resources, or forego them altogether. That’s a problem for the 800 million people in the world who have their food delievered to them via famine relief. Not only is the cost of food production getting higher, but the cost of delivering that food half way across the planet being exacerbated, and it’s not Ok.
Groups responsible for famine releif are already asking for additional funding to help deal with the problem, but unless we can figure out a way to cheaply supply the impoverished with food, Christmas won’t be the only time you see starving children on Television. We have to find new ways to store and deliver energy, build highly efficient transportation systems, and consume less of those products.
Here’s a list of interrelated problems:
Oil is the primary ingredient in growing food – Its not sustainable and it destroys the soil
GM Foods are being heralded as answers – they’re not : Monocultures are bad
Transportation systems are grossly inefficient – We need a fast cheap rail system
We eat too much meat – Cows are fed using grain, but it costs more to grow a cow then you get out of eating a cow.
We drive too much – Ban the Hummer, embrace Electric, or better yet – ride a bike
The Suburbs Suck – Denser, walkable living arrangements are better for community and the environment.
Who’s smart enough to figure those out?
