Balancing Energy and Food Production, 1975-2000

Abstract

For hundreds of years a state of balance between energy and food production has controlled the world food supply. The balance has permitted a well-developed, but essentially solar-energy-powered traditional agriculture to produce 1100 kg of food grain per hectare. This balance is currently being violated by two groups. One, operating in the affluent nations, has developed a technology for mobilizing nonrenewable energy inputs from fossil fuel to increase yields and land use intensity. The other is the one whose numbers and food needs have grown beyond the levels that can be sustained by yields of 1100 kg per hectare. The energy resources of the first group will run out and the second group will suffer famine, economic depression, or both. A worldwide view of various scenarios as population growth impacts with food production capabilities dependent on limited land and fossil energy resources is examined. After examining all the facts in the world economies and energy supplies, three possibilities for achieving food and energy balance are discussed: zero population growth; limited per capita resource consumption; and zero energy growth. The author concludes that the key to the system of balance is stopping population growth, and the necessary goal must be amore » solar-powered world; further, the time to use this key and set out toward this goal must be now--otherwise there may be no such thing as a calamity-free balance between energy and food. 27 references (MCW)« less