Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>]

Oil and food prices
Posted Jan 31, 2011 by Jason Bradford
http://www.farmlandlp.com/2011/01/oil-and-food-prices/

   Several years ago National Geographic magazine published an article on oil 
that included a stunning photo of mature steer and the barrels of oil needed 
to grow an animal to that size. I recently went looking for that picture, 
found it, and post it here because it hasn’t lost its impact or relevance one 
bit.

Here’s the caption that accompanies that photo:

    Weighing in at 1,250 pounds (567 kilograms), Marina Wilson’s champion 
steer Grandview Rebel is ready for auction at a county fair in Maryland. 
Raising this steer has taken an agricultural investment equal to 283 gallons 
(1,071 liters) of oil, represented here by the red drums. That includes 
everything from fertilizers on cornfields to the diesel that runs machinery 
on the farm. Overall, it takes three-quarters of a gallon of oil to produce a 
pound of beef.

Yowza! Three quarters of a gallon of oil to produce a pound of beef. At $4.00 
per gallon, this implies the cost of a pound of beef includes $3.00 worth of 
oil.

In reality, the oil is used for illustrative purposes only. The energy in the 
food systems comes from many sources, such as natural gas for fertilizer and 
drying grains, and the electric grid for almost everything. Broadly, however, 
industrial energy sources tend to have correlated prices and oil is 
considered the lynch pin since it is involved in the transportation of all 
goods, including energy inputs.

Given the heavy use of oil in the food system wouldn’t you expect oil and 
food prices to correlate? Well they certainly do.

cont. at link

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