Food production and global warming

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Feeling the heat of food security
Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7553958.stm
Reforming the economics of food production and supply would be beneficial for a number of environmental and social problems, argues Peter Baker. A key issue, he says, is understanding the energy involved in putting food on your plate.

Price, taste and nutritional value are the main driving factors behind most consumers’ decisions about what foods they eat. But many environmentalists believe that they should also consider the amount of “embodied” energy; or energy used to produce, transport, consume and dispose of agricultural products. One way of measuring this phenomenon is to compare the amount of embodied or “lifecycle” energy (measured in calories) required for fruit or produce production with the energy received by consumers when they ingest a product. For instance, tomato production in the USA requires four times as much caloric energy as the caloric value of the tomatoes created. In a fossil-fuel driven world, food production is a growing contributor to the greenhouse gases that are warming our world.