eating oil

Discovery of oil and gas peaked in the 1960’s. Production is set to peak too, with five Middle Eastern countries regaining control of world supply (Campbell). Almost two-thirds of the world's total reserves of crude oil are located in the Middle East, notably in Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq (Green Party USA). An assessment of future world oil supply and its depletion pattern shows that between 1980 and 1998 there was an 11.2 per cent increase in world crude oil production, from 59.6 to 66.9 million barrels of oil per day (Green Party USA). Current world production rates are about 25 billion barrels per year. Simple mathematical equations will show that if consumption levels remain constant, world crude oil reserves, at approximately one trillion barrels, could be exhausted around twenty forty (Fleming). Barbara Kingsolver said in her book Animal, Vegetable Miracle: A Year of Food Life, Americans consume over four hundred gallons of oil a year per citizen – about seventeen percent of our nation’s energy use.
In the United States, the average American meal travels 1500 miles from point of production to the dinner table (Kingsolver). One indicator of the unsustainability of the contemporary food system is the ratio of energy outputs - the energy content of a food product (calories) - to the energy inputs. More energy calories are consumed in the production, packaging and refrigeration of our food than what we as consumers get out of it. For example, when iceberg lettuce is impo...

eating oil

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