Eating less, eating local and eating better could slash U.S. energy use, CU study finds

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Eating less, eating local and eating better could slash U.S. energy use, CU study finds

How much energy we use to produce food could be cut in half if
Americans ate less and ate local foods, wolfed down less meat, dairy
and junk food, and used more traditional farming methods, says a new
Cornell study.

'We could reduce the fossil energy used in the U.S. food system by
about 50 percent with relatively simple changes in how we produce,
process, package, transport and consume our food,' said David
Pimentel, professor emeritus of ecology and agriculture in the College
of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell.

Pimentel's analysis, co-authored with five former Cornell
undergraduates who were in Pimentel's Environmental Policy course in
2006, is published in the academic journal Human Ecology.

Pimentel says that about 19 percent of the total fossil fuel used in
this country goes into the food system -- about the same amount we use
to fuel cars. His analysis details how changes in the food system
could reduce energy.

For example, the researchers recommend:

* Eat less and cut down on junk food: To produce the typical
American diet requires the equivalent of about 500 gallons of oil
per year per person, says the study. Americans, on average,
consume about 50 percent more calories than recommended by the
federal government for optimal health and get one-third of their
calories from junk food. Eating less and cutting down on junk food
would use significantly less energy, considering all the
processing, packaging and transportation costs saved.
* Eat less meat and dairy: We use 45 million tons of plant protein
to produce 7.5 million tons of animal protein per year, according
to Pimentel. Switching to a vegetarian diet, he says, would
require one-third less fossil fuel than producing the current
animal-based American diet.
* Eat more locally grown food: Food travels an average of 1,500
miles before it is eaten. 'This requires 1.4 times the energy than
the energy in the food,' Pimentel said. A head of iceberg lettuce,
for example, which is 95 percent water, provides 110 calories and
few nutrients. Irrigating the lettuce in California takes 750
calories of fossil energy and shipping it to New York another
4,000 calories of energy per head, according to the analysis.
Locally grown cabbage, on the other hand, requires only 400
calories to produce and offers far more nutrients, not to mention
it can be stored all winter long.
* Use more traditional farming methods: Pimentel's team also shows
how using methods to reduce soil erosion, irrigation and pesticide
use, through such things as crop rotation, manure and cover crops,
could cut the total energy now used in crop production.

The study's co-authors are Sean Williamson, Courtney Alexander, Omar
Gonzalez-Pagan, Caitlin Kontak and Steven Mulkey, all Cornell Class of
2007.

http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Aug08/Energy.Food.html