To the Editor:
Author Michael Pollan explains that for every calorie of food we produce in the United States we burn 10 calories of fossil fuel to grow, process and transport that one food calorie.
Ten calories in, 1 calorie out.
And the food we throw away represents about 2 percent of the energy we use here.
Most of our food is dependent on a 3-day supply chain carried by diesel trucks.
Petroleum based fertilizers and pesticides account for significant energy inputs and toxic externalities.
Roughly a million calories per person a year so, how many barrels is that or how many acres?
7.5 billion people are expected to become 10 billion and we cannot use oil to feed them.
Food security, food accessibility, food equity, food diversity, food democracy, food sustainability, and just plain food all depend on breaking the dependence on fossil food.
Buy the nearest vegetable and get a goat. Grow your own food.
Join a CSA and a CO-OP.
Establish, encourage and empower farming and food transport that reduces or eliminates fossil fuel use.
Our future is in soil, not oil.
Dennis Irvine
Sheffield
