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aquitaine
- 30
- 9
All this recent talk of peak oil, high oil prices, etc, it made me wonder, in the US how much oil does agriculture use, excluding packaging, refrigeration, transportation?
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... Time unit (per day? per year?) not stated. I am guessing it must be per year, based on the current 20 million barrels/day U.S. oil consumption (http://maps.unomaha.edu/peterson/funda/sidebar/oilconsumption.html), which implies 7.3 billion barrels/year.FTW said:Agriculture directly accounts for 17% of all the energy used in this country. As of 1990, we were using approximately 1,000 liters (6.41 barrels) of oil to produce food [on] one hectare of land.
CIA said:U.S. land: 9,161,966 sq km* [= 916,196,600 hectares**]
FTW said:Approximately three-quarters of the land area in the United States is devoted to agriculture and commercial forestry.
From http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/100303_eating_oil.html, which has some eye-popping statistics, like:FTW said:Agricultural energy consumption is broken down as follows:
· 31% for the manufacture of inorganic fertilizer
· 19% for the operation of field machinery
· 16% for transportation
· 13% for irrigation
· 08% for raising livestock (not including livestock feed)
· 05% for crop drying
· 05% for pesticide production
· 08% miscellaneous
Interesting. But I have a question, it is clear that in the future petroleum production will be in decline, what alternatives are there for fertilizer?... Time unit (per day? per year?) not stated. I am guessing it must be per year, based on the current 20 million barrels/day U.S. oil consumption (http://maps.unomaha.edu/peterson/fun...nsumption.html ), which implies 7.3 billion barrels/year.
EnumaElish said:"Assuming a figure of 2,500 kcal per capita for the daily diet in the United States, the 10/1 ratio translates into a cost of 35,000 kcal of exosomatic energy per capita each day. However, considering that the average return on one hour of endosomatic labor in the U.S. is about 100,000 kcal of exosomatic energy, the flow of exosomatic energy required to supply the daily diet is achieved in only 20 minutes of labor in our current system. Unfortunately, if you remove fossil fuels from the equation, the daily diet will require 111 hours of endosomatic labor per capita; that is, the current U.S. daily diet would require nearly three weeks of labor per capita to produce."
Agricultural petroleum use refers to the use of petroleum-based products in agriculture, such as fertilizer, pesticides, and fuel for farming equipment.
Agricultural petroleum use has several negative impacts on the environment, including air and water pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, and depletion of non-renewable resources.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, around 400 billion gallons of petroleum are used globally for agricultural purposes each year.
There are several alternatives to agricultural petroleum use, including organic farming methods, use of renewable energy sources for farming equipment, and sustainable farming practices that reduce the need for chemical inputs.
One way to reduce agricultural petroleum use is by transitioning to more sustainable and organic farming practices. This includes using natural fertilizers and pesticides, rotating crops, and implementing conservation practices to reduce the need for fuel-powered machinery.