Burning Food And Fuel

Two hungry, hungry sources are responsible for most of the world’s environmental impacts: our mouths and our gas tanks.

According to a report prepared for the “International Panel for Sustainable Resource Management,” convened under the United Nations Environment Programme , food and fuel consumption are taking considerable tolls on the environment that include reducing freshwater supplies, destroying ecosystems and intensifying disease and death rates. It’s not a rosy picture, and one of the report’s more interesting recommendations isn’t any more pleasant for meat eaters: switching to vegetable-based foods over animal-based proteins. (Of course, as far as carbon intensity, not all plants are created equal either).

In Canada, agriculture contributed 8.5 per cent of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2008, but energy provided the lion’s share, with 81 per cent. Changing the way we use energy is at the heart of everything we write here at Flow, so there are clear indications across the board that Canadians and Canadian industry are willing to take steps to improve their energy use. From energy efficiency to renewable energy projects, provincial energy strategies show that the entire country recognizes the importance of our energy.

And the agricultural industry has taken notice of its environmental footprint as well. In addition to projects like farm-based methane capture that make better use of existing emissions, techniques like no-till farming are designed to reduce the volume of total emissions by reducing the disturbance of soil. And even more basic methods, like using straw residue to keep nitrogen from escaping into groundwater, are aimed at reducing farming’s environmental impact.

Whether or not the report’s recommendations are followed to the letter, the way the world uses energy and grows its food will certainly change. But it’s also an uphill battle — there aren’t many things we need more than fuel and food.

Via Science Blog