“Every calorie of food produced requires, on average, 10 calories of fossil fuel inputs,” writes Richard Heinberg, an American journalist and educator who has written extensively on ecological issues, including oil depletion.
“This is a food system profoundly vulnerable, at every level, to fuel shortages and skyrocketing prices.”
The rapidly rising price of oil is reflected in the increasing costs of all fossil fuel-based agricultural inputs including fuel, fertilizer, pesticides and transportation expenses. This affects all aspects of agriculture.
Heinberg, author of eight books and featured speaker at the upcoming Organic Connections conference in Saskatoon Nov. 16-18, predicts that the world will reach a peak oil situation in 2010. At that point, the planet will have maximized the amount of oil that can be produced and will be heading into a gradual decline of viable fuel stocks.
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Heinberg provides an intriguing view of the ramifications of living in a peak oil reality and some dynamic solutions to consider.
“Modern industrial agriculture has been described as a method of using soil to turn petroleum and gas into food. We use natural gas to make fertilizer, and oil to fuel farm machinery and power irrigation pumps, as a feedstock for pesticides and herbicides, in the maintenance of animal operations, in crop storage and drying, and for transportation of farm inputs and outputs,” he writes.
“Traditional forms of agriculture produced a small solar energy surplus: each pound of food contained somewhat more stored energy from sunlight than humans and their animals had to expend in growing it.
“Today, between four and several hundred times the energy stored in the food is typically expended in growing, packaging, and transporting it. This is because modern industrial agriculture is very energy intensive – from the diesel fuel consumed by large agribusiness machinery; to the industrial production of nitrogen fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides; to the 1,300 miles in transportation that the average food item travels to get to your dinner table; to the energy invested in packaging and then cooking the meal.
“This energy deficit can only be maintained because of the availability of cheap fossil fuels, a temporary gift from the Earth’s geologic past.
“Trucks move most of the world’s food, even though trucking is 10 times more energy-intensive than moving food by train or barge. Refrigerated jets move a small but growing proportion of food, almost entirely to wealthy industrial nations, at 60 times the energy cost of sea transport.”
So what can we do agriculturally to mitigate these effects? The principles and practices common to organic agriculture have much to offer:
- Organic farmers grow their own fertilizer by cultivating legumes and green manures, replacing a costly fossil fuel-based input with a crop. This helps by sequestering carbon and reducing nitrous oxide air pollution and fertilizer losses in surface water runoff.
- Raising livestock in a grass-based system optimizes the use of marginal lands and offers a method of production using fewer fossil fuels.
- Organic farms tend to be smaller and therefore contribute to rural revitalization with more farmers on the land.
- Organic farmers have made progress in the development of local production for local markets, which reduces food miles and transportation costs. One option is the community supported agriculture model in which the customer pre-pays seasonally for a set share of a farm’s produce.
The Organic Connections conference offers the opportunity to get up close and personal with some of the leaders and pioneers of the organic community, as well as other experts who can help refine our perspectives.
Heinberg will attend by video link, bringing us his expertise without adding to our ecological footprint.
Martin Entz will share energy comparisons of organic and conventional agriculture and discuss ways to reduce tillage (and thus fuel use) in organic production.
Local experts will share solar power options.
Chefs will explain how best to access the potentially lucrative niche markets of local restaurants.
Experienced gardeners will show how to preserve the bounty of the summer garden harvest.
Joel Salatin will speak on his approach to systems agriculture, which embraces multiple land uses and local marketing techniques.
A three-day transition workshop will introduce people to the principles and techniques of organic production and will be ideal for anyone considering organic production. Experienced producers will be there to help participants chart their own path to success and field questions that only experienced organic farmers can answer.
How would agriculture look in a world with declining amounts of fossil fuel: probably quite differently than it does today. Perhaps some of the solutions that will allow us to move toward that day are to be found in the techniques of the organic community.
For more information on the Organic Connections conference, visit www.organicconnections.ca or call Lorraine at 306-956-3110.
Tracy Salisbury is an assistant in organic research and extension at the University of Saskatchewan. She and Brenda Frick, PhD, PAg, co-ordinator of organic research and extension at the U of S collaborate on the column. They welcome comments at 306-966-4975 or by e-mail at organic@usask.ca.
