Amount of energy that goes into food production, etc

[DJ in WA]

Good illustration of how easy oil has made food production, and the work we’ll have when energy sources dry up.

http://www.chrismartenson.com/crashc...r-17a-peak-oil

In order to understand why oil is so important to our economy and our daily lives, we have to understand something about what it does for us. We value any source of energy because we can harness it to do work for us. For example, every time you turn on a 100-watt light bulb, it is the same as if you had a fit human being in the basement, pedaling as hard as they could to keep that bulb lit. That is how much energy a single light bulb uses. In the background, while you run water, take hot showers, and vacuum the floor, it is as if your house is employing the services of 50 such extremely fit bike riders. This “slave count,” if you will, exceeds that of kings in times past. It can truly be said that we are all living like kings. Although we may not appreciate that, because it all seems so ordinary that we take it for granted.

And how much ‘work’ is embodied in a gallon of gasoline, our most favorite substance of them all? Well, if you put a single gallon in a car, drove it until it ran out, and then turned around and pushed the car home, you’d find out. It turns out that a gallon of gas has the equivalent energy of 500 hours of hard human labor, or 12-1/2 forty-hour work weeks.

So how much is a gallon of gas worth? $4? $10? If you wanted to pay this poor man $15 an hour to push your car home, then we might value a gallon of gas at $7,500.
Here’s another example. It has been calculated that the amount of food that average North America citizen consumes in year requires the equivalent of 400 gallons of petroleum to produce and ship.

At $4/gallon, that works out to $1600 of your yearly food bill spent on fuel, which doesn’t sound too extreme. However, when we consider that those 400 gallons represent the energy equivalent of 100 humans working year round at 40 hours a week, then it takes on an entirely different meaning. This puts your diet well out of the reach of most kings of times past. Just to put this in context, as it is currently configured, food production and distribution use fully two-thirds of our domestic oil production. This is one reason why a cessation of imports would be, shall we say, disruptive.

[Jenn]

Thanks for these facts. When I wonder why I bother using a wheelbarrow and shovel- instead of hiring in or buying and using an earthmover- or why I gather my leaves instead of only driving around town gathering other folks leaves, I picture doing it when gas costs $20 / gallon and hope I have learned how to garden properly my way before then.

[RedHairedBonnie]

That's an interesting article. On a slightly different slant...

People tell me I eat, mostly, for free, because we raise most of our own food. They do not consider the man hours, the fencing, feed, the start up costs...just to name a few...

I also just read an article about apple farmers. They are getting $.29 cents a pound, I'm paying $.99 at the store...that extra 70 cents a pound goes to middlemen and shipping. Just another reason to raise your own, and/or buy local