Abstract
There is nothing more critical to human existence than food. While a proper climate and water are arguably as important as food, they are usually present, but food shortages from population expansion, climatic extremes, conflict, and concentration of output in the hands of the powerful are a nearly constant characteristic of one part or another of the world’s human population for as far back as we have records—and probably far before that. For example, huge famines occurred in China in the sixth and twentieth century AD, and many centuries in between, most of Europe in the fifteenth century, Ireland in the middle of the nineteenth century, Bosnia, Philippines, and Sudan during this past century and countless other locations all over the world. But we in most of the developed world live today in a situation of incredible food affluence, and famine seems to have left much of the world except for areas of political-military conflict. How has this come to be? The most general answer is the application of fossil fuel technology and its ancillary technologies, most notably the production of nitrogen fertilizer and substitution of mechanical work for human and draft animal labor, to food plant production. This has allowed an enormous expansion of food production and has allowed us to think about food from many other perspectives, including aesthetic, moral and political. We examine human food production over millennia with a particular focus on energy: the quantity and quality of the energy of the food and also of the energy required to produce it.
This paper derived in large part from: Hall CAS, Klitgaard K (2012) Energy and the Wealth of Nations: Understanding the Biophysical Economy. Springer, NY; Used with permission.
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Notes
- 1.
Food and Agriculture Organization (2013), p. 124.
- 2.
Food and Agriculture Organization (2013), p. 124.
- 3.
Food and Agriculture Organization (2013), p. 67.
- 4.
Baffes and Dennis (2013), p. 2.
- 5.
Food and Agriculture Organization (2009), p. 11.
- 6.
- 7.
On the most basic level, nitrogen fixation is required for the production of plant protein, while carbon fixation is part of the process of producing sugars and other carbohydrates.
- 8.
United States Department of Agriculture (2010), p. 8.
- 9.
Pimentel (2006).
- 10.
Montgomery (2007), p. 13268.
- 11.
Pimentel and Pimentel (2003), p. 660S.
- 12.
See, e.g. Costa Rica as described in Hall et al. (2000).
- 13.
Washington Post (2013).
- 14.
World Bank (2014).
- 15.
World Bank (2014).
- 16.
Measured in kcal, where 1 kcal = 4.184 kJ.
- 17.
United States Department of Agriculture (2010), p. 8.
- 18.
Food and Agriculture Organization (2003), p. 5.
- 19.
Food and Agriculture Organization (2003), p. 5.
- 20.
- 21.
For example, locomotion and work.
- 22.
Hall et al. (1986), p. 12.
- 23.
Or approximately 8400–10,500 kJ.
- 24.
United States Department of Agriculture (2010), p. 8.
- 25.
United States Department of Agriculture (2010), p. 8.
- 26.
Kious (2002), p. 1.
- 27.
- 28.
T. Colin Campbell and Jacobson (2013).
- 29.
Malthus (1798).
- 30.
Hardin (1968).
- 31.
- 32.
See Charles A.S. Hall, Kent A. Klitgaard, Energy and the Wealth of Nations: Understanding the Biophysical Economy (Springer 2012).
- 33.
See a list of Kenneth Boulding’s work at http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/boulding-kenneth-e.pdf.
- 34.
Hall and Day (2009).
- 35.
Hall and Day (2009).
- 36.
- 37.
Also known as the “Club of Rome” model, after the organization that commissioned the publication.
- 38.
Meadows et al. (1972)
- 39.
Hall and Day (2009), p. 220.
- 40.
Hall and Day (2009).
- 41.
Lee (1969)
- 42.
- 43.
- 44.
Wrangham (2009).
- 45.
Popularly known as “Cro-Magnons,” and distinct from the earlier “Neanderthal” stocks.
- 46.
Diamond (1999).
- 47.
The word “urban” is actually derived from the ancient city Ur.
- 48.
- 49.
Cultivars are plants that humans cultivate.
- 50.
Cottrell (1955).
- 51.
Biotic means living parts of an ecosystem. In contrast, abiotic mean chemical or physical, non-living.
- 52.
The Nile is an exception, for the winds tend to blow north to south while the water flows south to north, so dhows could go both ways.
- 53.
Contrary to popular belief, Caesar and Mark Anthony were not in Egypt for Cleopatra—the real target was grain from continuously replenished flooding soil.
- 54.
Steinhart and Steinhart (1974), p. 307.
- 55.
Steinhart and Steinhart (1974).
- 56.
Cleveland (1995), pp. 111–121.
- 57.
These include pesticides, fertilizers, machinery, energy used to generate electricity, and agricultural services.
- 58.
- 59.
See Hamilton et al. (2013), p. 1764.
- 60.
Pimentel et al. (1989).
- 61.
For instance, increased use of meals and other by-products, which reduce the grain demand by livestock.
- 62.
- 63.
Camargo et al. (2013) p. 263.
- 64.
This is due to their efficient photosynthetic pathways.
- 65.
Or 365 kg—roughly one third of a ton—per year.
- 66.
1 ha = 2.54 acres.
- 67.
The conversion is expressed in a “calories to calories” ratio—be careful not to equate this with weight because of varying moisture contents.
- 68.
Pimentel and Pimentel (2003).
- 69.
Pimentel and Pimentel (2003), p. 660S.
- 70.
Pimentel personal communication (on file with the author).
- 71.
Pirog and Benjamin (2003), p. 1.
- 72.
“Local” meaning 30 miles away, and with a truck getting 15 miles per gallon.
- 73.
Which gets only 7 miles per gallon.
- 74.
Balogh et al. (2012).
- 75.
Hamilton et al. (2013).
- 76.
Kcal of food produced per kcal of input fossil energy.
- 77.
Cao et al. (2010).
- 78.
Karkacier et al. (2006).
- 79.
Mushtaq et al. (2009).
- 80.
Kantor et al. (1997).
- 81.
Hall et al. (2009b), p. 2.
- 82.
Hall et al. (2009b), p. 2.
- 83.
Food and Agriculture Organization (2011), p. 10.
- 84.
Food and Agriculture Organization (2011), p. 10.
- 85.
See Howard T. Odum, Environment, Power, and Society (1971).
- 86.
Hamilton et al. (2013).
- 87.
- 88.
See the White House Bee Hive video at https://www.whitehouse.gov/photos-and-video/video/inside-white-house-bees (last accessed April 7, 2015).
- 89.
Total population: 450,000. Based on Balogh et al. (2012).
- 90.
In this case, consuming meat once per week.
- 91.
Jevons (1865).
- 92.
Alfredsson (2004).
- 93.
Alfredsson (2004).
- 94.
Goeller and Weinberg (1976).
- 95.
Deevey (1960), p. 194.
- 96.
Kimbrell (2002), pp. 3–36.
- 97.
- 98.
- 99.
Cleveland (1995).
- 100.
Hall and Ramirez-Pascualli (2012).
- 101.
United States Energy Information Administration (2014).
- 102.
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Balogh, S.B., Hall, C.A.S. (2016). Food and Energy. In: Steier, G., Patel, K. (eds) International Food Law and Policy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07542-6_15
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