Food Pyramid or Fossil Pyramid?

Even though many food items have become more readily accessible in many shops all over the country, it comes with a heavy toll on the environment.

Nowadays, the food system relies on cheap crude oil. The majority of the processes within the system involve some sort of oil usage, from the growth and cultivation stage to the moment it is harvested, packed, and delivered across the country. A major issue of this relationship between oil and food is that oil is a finite resource. Its unsustainability is the opposite of what modern technology needs, especially with the imminent threats of climate change.

Not only climate change can have strong repercussions on coastal cities and climate patterns, it can greatly compromise agricultural land too. By altering climatic cycles, soil erosion, environmental degradation, drought, salinization, pests and disease outbreaks are possible outcomes that can threaten the global food supply, and thus increasing the deficit of food access for millions across the globe.

According to the USDA, more than 85% of current energy sources come from fossil fuels, and food-related energy use has continued to increase since 1997, accounting for roughly “80 percent of national energy flow increase” in a five year period. This energy increase, as USDA points it out, is factored in all steps of creating the majority of our food products. The majority of non-organic produce utilizes fossil-powered machinery and are subject to fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides that come from by-products of natural gas. Furthermore, the shipment process carries out a long mileage in ships, planes, or trucks, adding even more fossil fuel usage to the already carbon-intensive chain of production. In terms of calories, the transportation and production of produce is heavily inefficient, since it takes more than a hundred times the caloric value of the product to transport it, either by air, sea, or land. As Michael Pollan exemplifies it, an acre of corn requires around fifty gallons of oil, which is contrasted to more organic, non-fossil fuel based agricultural methods, where one calorie of energy invested yielded two calories of food energy. Thus, much energy is wasted to transport less than one calorie from one side of a country to another, and even more when it is shipped overseas.

This shift from a sun-based energy to a fossil fuel reliant system only benefits industries in the long run, since all the hazardous by-products end in the food we consume and the environment is heavily affected, which ultimately affects us too. On the other hand, organic farming can signify an alternative to fossil fuels, providing more conventional farmers with sustainable choices that preserve the quality and fertility of a soil. However, many large scale farms have adapted the organic practice into a more industrial process that appeals to customers but still utilizes heavy amounts of fossil fuels. Therefore, a dichotomy between two organic practices exist, but the majority of the public is unaware of this, which is favoured by industries that seek to commercialize organic food.

The current food system will not be able to feed the increasing 7 billion people in the planet, and rapid action must be taken. Additionally, peak oil might have already been reached, meaning that all systems reliant on it are threatened, but continue to produce it for the convenience of profit and mass production. How can people start to become more active in reducing their carbon footprint? Would people begin to consumer more locally grown organic food if it were to save the planet? Why does the industry continue this type of production if it greatly compromises the planet? Despite all the questions that could be asked, action must be taken quickly in order to save both the planet and the valuable sources of our food, hoping that humanity’s wronging on earth has not gone too far.