Oil for Agriculture
Daniel J. Lavigne
Keep in mind that when the price of energy climbs and jobs
disappear, everyone's priorities change. Survival becomes more
important that getting to the movie theater or taking that vacation
to Italy. Or, another way of putting it is, there will be
substantial inflation in the price of everything with an energy
component - meaning you will work more hours to be able to purchase
it; "demand destruction" eliminates the more discretionary uses of
energy first, a necessary thing since there's less of it to go
around.
Food of course is the last to go. Heiko probably has the numbers
but I think I remember hearing that something like 15% of energy use
in developed countries goes into food production (and, all the
ancillary but essential aspects that "b" mentions).
As we go down that path, we can see the remaining energy use going
into (1) food, and (2) military, to either defend or to secure
energy sources and lines of supply. Everything else will be very
expensive. Food will be very expensive too, which is why, on
average, people will have less to spend on all those other
things they spend money on now.
Dick Lawrence
--- In energyr...@yahoogroups.com, b <b@t...> wrote:
> > Message: 22
> > Date: Fri, 05 Sep 2003 18:08:21 -0000
> > From: "hgerhauser" <gerhaush@a...>
> > Subject: Re: So simple
> >
> > How much oil, in barrels per day, do you think would be required
> > to transport enough food for every US resident over 1000 km.
> >
> > Heiko, England
>
> Wouldn't that question be more akin to: "how much oil would be
required to transport enough food for every US resident over 1000
km, AND build the trucks that carry the fertilizer to the fields,
the tractors that plant, plough and harvest the fields and the
trucks that carry the food to the processors and then to the
consumers; the oil required to maintain and power the refrigerated
intermediate storage/consolidation facilities, maintain (and
continue to build) the highway infrastructure, keep the retail
centers lit and cooled, and get the consumers back and forth, and
the energy required to house, heat, water, etc, the herd of
> workers and managers who oversee these flows."
>
> Whatever the answer to that is, its a lot more than that
comprising your original question. And every step along
the way is essential to the process.
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