Why Our Food is So Dependent on Oil

Norman Church discusses the facts surrounding our current cheap food sources and the reliance on cheap oil of our food market today. He shows how the current system is both not sustainable and inefficient.

April 2nd, 2005

“Concentrate on what cannot lie. The evidence...” — Gil Grissom

INTRODUCTION

“Eating Oil” was the title of a book which was published in 1978 following the first oil crisis in 1973¹. The aim of the book was to investigate the extent to which food supply in industrialised countries relied on fossil fuels. In the summer of 2000 the degree of dependence on oil in the UK food system was demonstrated once again when protestors blockaded oil refineries and fuel distribution depots. The fuel crises disrupted the distribution of food and industry leaders warned that their stores would be out of food within days. The lessons of 1973 have not been heeded.

Today the food system is even more reliant on cheap crude oil. Virtually all of the processes in the modern food system are now dependent upon this finite resource, which is nearing its depletion phase.

The Food Supply Chain picture.

Moreover, at a time when we should be making massive cuts in the emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere in order to reduce the threat posed by climate change, the food system is lengthening its supply chains and increasing emissions to the point where it is a significant contributor to…

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Former submarine sailor, now a peace warrior. I am 28 years old and currently seeking a Physics and Mechanical Engineering B.S. I am currently enrolled at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I serve as the Secretary for IVAW-Madison and am the WI...