An Affair Worth Ending: Fuel and Food

by Julie Hitchcock

Food. Lets face it, who doesn’t

love good food, we love to eat it,
grill it, serve it and share it with
love ones. Every thing from the
famed Thanksgiving meal where
the table is sagging with the weight
of hot delicious foods, to summer
picnics with cold salads and
sandwiches, food in many ways
defines our lives. But its not as
simple as we would like it to be,
once just a story about land and a
farmer, it is now an epic tale
dripping all along the way with oil.

Not so long ago, food was grown just outside of town, often organically, picked by hand and delivered at
the peak of freshness to small grocery stores. Today its a much different process for most of our foods.
Did you know average food item travels well over 1,500 miles, and that’s just the final leg of its fuel
filled life. Lets take a closer look at our food footprint.

The love affair between food and fuel..

1. Tilling- the turning over of the soil to prepare for planting as well as disrupting of any weeds that
may have sprouted. This is most often done with a tractor.
2. Planting- A HUGE machine goes up and down the rows dropping seeds, burning five gallons of
fuel for every acre planted.
3. Spraying- Pesticide or Herbicide both are applied multiple times in a growing season by the same
machine.
4. Harvesting- Once again the HUGE machine makes its ways up and down the rows grabbing
produce a week or so before its fully ripe.
5. Processing- This step involves every thing from sorting, washing and packaging produce, to
converting it from a whole food to a “food like substance” as Michael Pollon would say. It is a
highly material and energy intensive process on both the food and packaging side of the equation.
6. Shipping- Two to three separate journeys mostly semi trucks but also planes, boats, or trains
7. Retail- Here along with its jet setting friends you food awaits you.
After looking closer at that journey the food doesn’t look nearly so appetizing..

There is a better way. There are a few easy ways to cut down your food miles, and start living green
solutions.

1. Farmers markets are a great place to meet your farmer and learn about where you food comes
from. More and more are popping up all the time across the country.
2. Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), which are available in many cities, where you buy a
share of the farms harvest in the spring and receive a weekly box over flowing with seasonal
bounty.
3. Support small farms, they tend to use more hand labor for planting, picking and weeding which
keeps food footprint incredibly low, as well as employing more people.
4. Minimizing the amount of processed food is also cuts back on the fuel required.
5. Avoid packaging to the best of your ability, always check for items in the bulk isle before going
to the packaged products.

Here are some great links and websites to learn more about food, food production and other related items
to our food system.

1. http://www.sustainabletable.org/home.php
2. http://www.hort.cornell.edu/foodsys/
3. http://css.snre.umich.edu/css_doc/CSS01-06.pdf
4. http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&q=food+system&bav=on.1,or.&um=1&ie=UTF-
8&source=univ&sa=X&ei=YK9hTbXvJoecsQPimfm6CA&ved=0CE4QsAQ&biw=1273&bih=6
10(this is a Google image search and has many graphs and charts)
5. http://www.ers.usda.gov/AmberWaves/September10/Features/EnergyUse.htm(lots more facts and
figures- some will make your jaw drop)

Some foods can’t be grown locally and that’s okay, pomegranates to Wisconsin, pineapples to Oregon,
and oranges to Maine. Its okay to ship those foods, if they are in the minority. If most of our food came
from a local grower, and was seasonally appropriate, having those rare special treats shipped in to us isn’t
such a big deal. Its just a matter of small steps to arrive at big solutions. Ive given you a few ideas today,
for more check out Going Green Today for many small steps to Big Change.