The Omnivore's Dilemma

Deep thoughts on Sunday night courtesy of Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma:

"The food industry burns nearly a fifth of all the petroleum consumed in the United States (about as much as automobiles do). Today it takes between seven and ten calories of fossil fuel energy to deliver one calorie of food energy to an American plate. And while it is true that organic farmers don't spread fertilizers made from natural gas or spray pesticides made from petroleum, industrial organic farmers often wind up burning more diesel fuel than their conventional counterparts: in trucking bulky loads of compost across the countryside and weeding their fields, a particularly energy-intensive process involving extra irrigation (to germinate the weeds before planting) and extra cultivation. All told, growing food organically uses about a third less fossil fuel than growing it conventionally, though that savings disappears if the compost is not produced on site or nearby."

"If the sixteen million acres now being used to grow corn to feed cows in the United States became well-managed pasture, that would remove fourteen billion pounds of carbon from the atmosphere each year, the equivalent of taking four million cars off the road. We seldom focus on farming's role in global warming, but as much as a third of all the greenhouse gases that human activity has added to the atmosphere can be attributed to the saw and the plow."

Oy vey.

Comments

[Lia]

Luisa, I'm reading this book right now as well! It's great isn't it? Pretty scary, but such an important read.

[Tanna]

Well, that's a stunning quote. I need that book.

[sixty-five]

Did you notice the recent article in the NYT about how farmers in Iowa are converting their cornfields into vineyards because it is so much more profitable for them? This has to be good, right?