by Pepper Schneekloth
The food system: we know it exists, but for many of us, our only interaction with it is when we buy groceries. Our food goes through a long journey before it hits the shelves though, and this long journey requires a LOT of energy.
The food system as it currently operates in the U.S. can be separated into 5 main areas: production, processing, distribution, consumption, and waste. This system as a whole uses about 10.1 QUADRILLION British thermal units (Btus) per year. That’s more energy than the entire country of Iran uses annually. The production stage alone uses over 2 quadrillion Btu! What’s worse, almost all of the energy used to power the food system stems from fossil fuels. In addition to all the energy used to make our food, once it reaches the consumption stage, which includes both retail and using food at home, over 30% of this food is wasted, and all that energy is wasted along with it!
Okay, so our food system is energy inefficient, but why?
One reason is the U.S. food system’s reliance on monocultures, defined as the cultivation of a single crop in a given area, to produce many of the staple ingredients in our diets, such as corn, wheat, and soy. These are the giant fields of corn or wheat you might see on a long road trip. Huge farm equipment is required to harvest fields this big, and for the most part, this equipment runs on diesel, a dirty fuel that is directly linked to air pollution, health issues, and other negative environmental impacts. You see, the government extends agricultural subsidies, a form of monetary support, to financially incentivize farmers to grow certain crops, further encouraging monoculture. Not only is this extremely damaging to local ecosystems, it also harms small farmers and encourages a few large farms to grow major diet staples in relatively few places around the country. The majority of farm subsidies go to large, commercial farms. This not only makes it more expensive for smaller farms to grow these crops from the supply side, it also keeps crop prices very low, meaning small farms make less money on the crops from the demand side.
When the majority of our food is grown on a relatively few select farms, it also has to travel farther to get to consumers. 1.4 quadrillion Btus are used annually to transport food around the country. This doesn’t include food that comes from outside the U.S., which has to travel even farther. Plus, the move away from local, in-season crops towards the same diet staples year-round means that food that can only be grown in certain climates must also be transported hundreds (or even thousands) of miles to reach its destination. For example, the vast majority of oranges grown in the U.S. are grown in Florida and California, but you’d be hard pressed to find a major grocery store anywhere in the country that doesn’t sell them.
Inefficiencies in the food system are obviously a major contributor to climate change. A study from earlier this year found that globally, the food system contributes as much as 40% of all greenhouse gas emissions caused by human activity. The biggest contributor to these emissions is deforestation and other measures that turn naturally occurring ecosystems into agricultural land.
The food system needs to change. Its significant contributions to climate change and environmental degradation, as well as the way our agriculture system pushes out small farmers, is not sustainable. However, the current state of our food system also provides major opportunities to reduce overall emissions and promote safer, healthier, more sustainable practices. We need to promote the production AND consumption of local, in-season foods.
Curious to see how the U.S. food system stacks up compared to other countries? Want to learn more about policies and actions affecting how we get our food? Check out this tool from Food Systems Dashboard. Let us know in the comments how you think the food system can be improved in your community!