The Oil We Eat = (Harpers.org)

The Oil We Eat

Following the food chain back to Iraq

Posted on Friday, July 23, 2004. Originally from = Harper's=20 Magazine, February 2004. By Richard Manning.

The secret of great wealth with no obvious source is some=20 forgotten crime, forgotten because it was done neatly.=97Balzac =

The journalist=92s rule says: follow the money. This rule, however, = is not=20 really axiomatic but derivative, in that money, as even our vice = president will=20 tell you, is really a way of tracking energy. We=92ll follow the energy. =

We learn as children that there is no free lunch, that you don=92t = get=20 something from nothing, that what goes up must come down, and so on. The = scientific version of these verities is only slightly more complex. As = James=20 Prescott Joule discovered in the nineteenth century, there is only so = much=20 energy. You can change it from motion to heat, from heat to light, but = there=20 will never be more of it and there will never be less of it. The = conservation of=20 energy is not an option, it is a fact. This is the first law of = thermodynamics.=20

Special as we humans are, we get no exemptions from the rules. All = animals=20 eat plants or eat animals that eat plants. This is the food chain, and = pulling=20 it is the unique ability of plants to turn sunlight into stored energy = in the=20 form of carbohydrates, the basic fuel of all animals. Solar-powered=20 photosynthesis is the only way to make this fuel. There is no = alternative to=20 plant energy, just as there is no alternative to oxygen. The results of = taking=20 away our plant energy may not be as sudden as cutting off oxygen, but = they are=20 as sure.

Scientists have a name for the total amount of plant mass created by = Earth in=20 a given year, the total budget for life. They call it the planet=92s = =93primary=20 productivity.=94 There have been two efforts to figure out how that = productivity=20 is spent, one by a group at Stanford University, the other an = independent=20 accounting by the biologist Stuart Pimm. Both conclude that we humans, a = single=20 species among millions, consume about 40 percent of Earth=92s primary=20 productivity, 40 percent of all there is. This simple number may explain = why the=20 current extinction rate is 1,000 times that which existed before human=20 domination of the planet. We 6 billion have simply stolen the food, the = rich=20 among us a lot more than others.

Energy cannot be created or canceled, but it can be concentrated. = This is the=20 larger and profoundly explanatory context of a national-security memo = George=20 Kennan wrote in 1948 as the head of a State Department planning = committee,=20 ostensibly about Asian policy but really about how the United States was = to deal=20 with its newfound role as the dominant force on Earth. =93We have about = 50 percent=20 of the world=92s wealth but only 6.3 percent of its population,=94 = Kennan wrote. =93In=20 this situation, we cannot fail to be the object of envy and resentment. = Our real=20 task in the coming period is to devise a pattern of relationships which = will=20 permit us to maintain this position of disparity without positive = detriment to=20 our national security. To do so, we will have to dispense with all=20 sentimentality and day-dreaming; and our attention will have to be = concentrated=20 everywhere on our immediate national objectives. We need not deceive = ourselves=20 that we can afford today the luxury of altruism and = world-benefaction.=94=93The day=20 is not far off,=94 Kennan concluded, =93when we are going to have to = deal in=20 straight power concepts.=94

If you follow the energy, eventually you will end up in a field = somewhere.=20 Humans engage in a dizzying array of artifice and industry. Nonetheless, = more=20 than two thirds of humanity=92s cut of primary productivity results from = agriculture, two thirds of which in turn consists of three plants: rice, = wheat,=20 and corn. In the 10,000 years since humans domesticated these grains, = their=20 status has remained undiminished, most likely because they are able to = store=20 solar energy in uniquely dense, transportable bundles of carbohydrates. = They are=20 to the plant world what a barrel of refined oil is to the hydrocarbon = world.=20 Indeed, aside from hydrocarbons they are the most concentrated form of = true=20 wealth=97sun energy=97to be found on the planet.

As Kennan recognized, however, the maintenance of such a = concentration of=20 wealth often requires violent action. Agriculture is a recent human = experiment.=20 For most of human history, we lived by gathering or killing a broad = variety of=20 nature=92s offerings. Why humans might have traded this approach for the = complexities of agriculture is an interesting and long-debated question, = especially because the skeletal evidence clearly indicates that early = farmers=20 were more poorly nourished, more disease-ridden and deformed, than their = hunter-gatherer contemporaries. Farming did not improve most lives. The = evidence=20 that best points to the answer, I think, lies in the difference between = early=20 agricultural villages and their pre-agricultural counterparts=97the = presence not=20 just of grain but of granaries and, more tellingly, of just a few houses = significantly larger and more ornate than all the others attached to = those=20 granaries. Agriculture was not so much about food as it was about the=20 accumulation of wealth. It benefited some humans, and those people have = been in=20 charge ever since.

Domestication was also a radical change in the distribution of wealth = within=20 the plant world. Plants can spend their solar income in several ways. = The=20 dominant and prudent strategy is to allocate most of it to building = roots, stem,=20 bark=97a conservative portfolio of investments that allows the plant to = better=20 gather energy and survive the downturn years. Further, by living in = diverse=20 stands (a given chunk of native prairie contains maybe 200 species of = plants),=20 these perennials provide services for one another, such as retaining = water,=20 protecting one another from wind, and fixing free nitrogen from the air = to use=20 as fertilizer. Diversity allows a system to =93sponsor its own = fertility,=94 to use=20 visionary agronomist Wes Jackson=92s phrase. This is the plant world=92s = norm.

There is a very narrow group of annuals, however, that grow in = patches of a=20 single species and store almost all of their income as seed, a tight = bundle of=20 carbohydrates easily exploited by seed eaters such as ourselves. Under = normal=20 circumstances, this eggs-in-one-basket strategy is a dumb idea for a = plant. But=20 not during catastrophes such as floods, fires, and volcanic eruptions. = Such=20 catastrophes strip established plant communities and create = opportunities for=20 wind-scattered entrepreneurial seed bearers. It is no accident that no = matter=20 where agriculture sprouted on the globe, it always happened near rivers. = You=20 might assume, as many have, that this is because the plants needed the = water or=20 nutrients. Mostly this is not true. They needed the power of flooding, = which=20 scoured landscapes and stripped out competitors. Nor is it an accident, = I think,=20 that agriculture arose independently and simultaneously around the globe = just as=20 the last ice age ended, a time of enormous upheaval when glacial melt = let loose=20 sea-size lakes to create tidal waves of erosion. It was a time of = catastrophe.=20

Corn, rice, and wheat are especially adapted to catastrophe. It is = their=20 niche. In the natural scheme of things, a catastrophe would create a = blank=20 slate, bare soil, that was good for them. Then, under normal = circumstances,=20 succession would quickly close that niche. The annuals would colonize. = Their=20 roots would stabilize the soil, accumulate organic matter, provide = cover.=20 Eventually the catastrophic niche would close. Farming is the process of = ripping=20 that niche open again and again. It is an annual artificial catastrophe, = and it=20 requires the equivalent of three or four tons of TNT per acre for a = modern=20 American farm. Iowa=92s fields require the energy of 4,000 Nagasaki = bombs every=20 year.

Iowa is almost all fields now. Little prairie remains, and if you can = find=20 what Iowans call a =93postage stamp=94 remnant of some, it most likely = will abut a=20 cornfield. This allows an observation. Walk from the prairie to the = field, and=20 you probably will step down about six feet, as if the land had been = stolen from=20 beneath you. Settlers=92 accounts of the prairie conquest mention a = sound, a=20 series of pops, like pistol shots, the sound of stout grass roots = breaking=20 before a moldboard plow. A robbery was in progress.

When we say the soil is rich, it is not a metaphor. It is as rich in = energy=20 as an oil well. A prairie converts that energy to flowers and roots and = stems,=20 which in turn pass back into the ground as dead organic matter. The = layers of=20 topsoil build up into a rich repository of energy, a bank. A farm field=20 appropriates that energy, puts it into seeds we can eat. Much of the = energy=20 moves from the earth to the rings of fat around our necks and waists. = And much=20 of the energy is simply wasted, a trail of dollars billowing from the = burglar=92s=20 satchel.

I=92ve already mentioned that we humans take 40 percent of the = globe=92s primary=20 productivity every year. You might have assumed we and our livestock eat = our way=20 through that volume, but this is not the case. Part of that = total=97almost a third=20 of it=97is the potential plant mass lost when forests are cleared for = farming or=20 when tropical rain forests are cut for grazing or when plows destroy the = deep=20 mat of prairie roots that held the whole business together, triggering = erosion.=20 The Dust Bowl was no accident of nature. A functioning grassland prairie = produces more biomass each year than does even the most technologically = advanced=20 wheat field. The problem is, it=92s mostly a form of grass and grass = roots that=20 humans can=92t eat. So we replace the prairie with our own preferred = grass, wheat.=20 Never mind that we feed most of our grain to livestock, and that = livestock is=20 perfectly content to eat native grass. And never mind that there likely = were=20 more bison produced naturally on the Great Plains before farming than = all of=20 beef farming raises in the same area today. Our ancestors found it = preferable to=20 pluck the energy from the ground and when it ran out move on.

Today we do the same, only now when the vault is empty we fill it = again with=20 new energy in the form of oil-rich fertilizers. Oil is annual primary=20 productivity stored as hydrocarbons, a trust fund of sorts, built up = over many=20 thousands of years. On average, it takes 5.5 gallons of fossil energy to = restore=20 a year=92s worth of lost fertility to an acre of eroded land=97in 1997 = we burned=20 through more than 400 years=92 worth of ancient fossilized productivity, = most of=20 it from someplace else. Even as the earth beneath Iowa shrinks, it is = being=20 globalized.

Six thousand years before sodbusters broke up Iowa, their Caucasian = blood=20 ancestors broke up the Hungarian plain, an area just northwest of the = Caucasus=20 Mountains. Archaeologists call this tribe the LBK, short for = linearbandkeramik,=20 the German word that describes the distinctive pottery remnants that = mark their=20 occupation of Europe. Anthropologists call them the wheat-beef people, a = name=20 that better connects those ancients along the Danube to my fellow = Montanans on=20 the Upper Missouri River. These proto-Europeans had a full set of = domesticated=20 plants and animals, but wheat and beef dominated. All the domesticates = came from=20 an area along what is now the Iraq-Syria-Turkey border at the edges of = the=20 Zagros Mountains. This is the center of domestication for the Western = world=92s=20 main crops and livestock, ground zero of catastrophic agriculture.

Two other types of catastrophic agriculture evolved at roughly the = same time,=20 one centered on rice in what is now China and India and one centered on = corn and=20 potatoes in Central and South America. Rice, though, is tropical and its = expansion depends on water, so it developed only in floodplains, = estuaries, and=20 swamps. Corn agriculture was every bit as voracious as wheat; the Aztecs = could=20 be as brutal and imperialistic as Romans or Brits, but the corn cultures = collapsed with the onslaught of Spanish conquest. Corn itself simply = joined the=20 wheat-beef people=92s coalition. Wheat was the empire builder; its bare = botanical=20 facts dictated the motion and violence that we know as imperialism.

The wheat-beef people swept across the western European plains in = less than=20 300 years, a conquest some archaeologists refer to as a = =93blitzkrieg.=94 A=20 different race of humans, the Cro-Magnons=97hunter-gatherers, not = farmers=97lived on=20 those plains at the time. Their cave art at places such as Lascaux = testifies to=20 their sophistication and profound connection to wildlife. They probably = did most=20 of their hunting and gathering in uplands and river bottoms, places the = wheat=20 farmers didn=92t need, suggesting the possibility of coexistence. = That=92s not what=20 happened, however. Both genetic and linguistic evidence say that the = farmers=20 killed the hunters. The Basque people are probably the lone remnant = descendants=20 of Cro-Magnons, the only trace.

Hunter-gatherer archaeological sites of the period contain spear = points that=20 originally belonged to the farmers, and we can guess they weren=92t = trade goods.=20 One group of anthropologists concludes, =93The evidence from the western = extension=20 of the LBK leaves little room for any other conclusion but that = LBK-Mesolithic=20 interactions were at best chilly and at worst hostile.=94 The world=92s = surviving=20 Blackfeet, Assiniboine Sioux, Inca, and Maori probably have the best = idea of the=20 nature of these interactions.

Wheat is temperate and prefers plowed-up grasslands. The globe has a = limited=20 stock of temperate grasslands, just as it has a limited stock of all = other=20 biomes. On average, about 10 percent of all other biomes remain in = something=20 like their native state today. Only 1 percent of temperate grasslands = remains=20 undestroyed. Wheat takes what it needs.

The supply of temperate grasslands lies in what are today the United = States,=20 Canada, the South American pampas, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, = Europe,=20 and the Asiatic extension of the European plain into the sub-Siberian = steppes.=20 This area largely describes the First World, the developed world. = Temperate=20 grasslands make up not only the habitat of wheat and beef but also the = globe=92s=20 islands of Caucasians, of European surnames and languages. In 2000 the = countries=20 of the temperate grasslands, the neo-Europes, accounted for about 80 = percent of=20 all wheat exports in the world, and about 86 percent of all corn. That = is to=20 say, the neo-Europes drive the world=92s agriculture. The dominance does = not stop=20 with grain. These countries, plus the mothership=97Europe=97accounted = for three=20 fourths of all agricultural exports of all crops in the world in 1999. =

Plato wrote of his country=92s farmlands:

What now remains of the formerly rich land is like the = skeleton of=20 a sick man. . . . Formerly, many of the mountains were arable. The = plains that=20 were full of rich soil are now marshes. Hills that were once covered = with=20 forests and produced abundant pasture now produce only food for bees. = Once the=20 land was enriched by yearly rains, which were not lost, as they are = now, by=20 flowing from the bare land into the sea. The soil was deep, it = absorbed and=20 kept the water in loamy soil, and the water that soaked into the hills = fed=20 springs and running streams everywhere. Now the abandoned shrines at = spots=20 where formerly there were springs attest that our description of the = land is=20 true.

Plato=92s lament is rooted in wheat agriculture, which depleted his = country=92s=20 soil and subsequently caused the series of declines that pushed centers = of=20 civilization to Rome, Turkey, and western Europe. By the fifth century, = though,=20 wheat=92s strategy of depleting and moving on ran up against the = Atlantic Ocean.=20 Fenced-in wheat agriculture is like rice agriculture. It balances its = equations=20 with famine. In the millennium between 500 and 1500, Britain suffered a = major=20 =93corrective=94 famine about every ten years; there were seventy-five = in France=20 during the same period. The incidence, however, dropped sharply when=20 colonization brought an influx of new food to Europe.

The new lands had an even greater effect on the colonists themselves. = Thomas=20 Jefferson, after enduring a lecture on the rustic nature by his hosts at = a=20 dinner party in Paris, pointed out that all of the Americans present = were a good=20 head taller than all of the French. Indeed, colonists in all of the = neo-Europes=20 enjoyed greater stature and longevity, as well as a lower = infant-mortality=20 rate=97all indicators of the better nutrition afforded by the onetime = spend down=20 of the accumulated capital of virgin soil.

The precolonial famines of Europe raised the question: What would = happen when=20 the planet=92s supply of arable land ran out? We have a clear answer. In = about=20 1960 expansion hit its limits and the supply of unfarmed, arable lands = came to=20 an end. There was nothing left to plow. What happened was grain yields = tripled.=20

The accepted term for this strange turn of events is the green = revolution,=20 though it would be more properly labeled the amber revolution, because = it=20 applied exclusively to grain=97wheat, rice, and corn. Plant breeders = tinkered with=20 the architecture of these three grains so that they could be = hypercharged with=20 irrigation water and chemical fertilizers, especially nitrogen. This = innovation=20 meshed nicely with the increased =93efficiency=94 of the industrialized = factory-farm=20 system. With the possible exception of the domestication of wheat, the = green=20 revolution is the worst thing that has ever happened to the planet.

For openers, it disrupted long-standing patterns of rural life = worldwide,=20 moving a lot of no-longer-needed people off the land and into the = world=92s most=20 severe poverty. The experience in population control in the developing = world is=20 by now clear: It is not that people make more people so much as it is = that they=20 make more poor people. In the forty-year period beginning about 1960, = the=20 world=92s population doubled, adding virtually the entire increase of 3 = billion to=20 the world=92s poorest classes, the most fecund classes. The way in which = the green=20 revolution raised that grain contributed hugely to the population boom, = and it=20 is the weight of the population that leaves humanity in its present = untenable=20 position.

Discussion of these, the most poor, however, is largely irrelevant to = the=20 American situation. We say we have poor people here, but almost no one = in this=20 country lives on less than one dollar a day, the global benchmark for = poverty.=20 It marks off a class of about 1.3 billion people, the hard core of the = larger=20 group of 2 billion chronically malnourished people=97that is, one third = of=20 humanity. We may forget about them, as most Americans do.

More relevant here are the methods of the green revolution, which = added=20 orders of magnitude to the devastation. By mining the iron for tractors, = drilling the new oil to fuel them and to make nitrogen fertilizers, and = by=20 taking the water that rain and rivers had meant for other lands, farming = had=20 extended its boundaries, its dominion, to lands that were not farmable. = At the=20 same time, it extended its boundaries across time, tapping fossil = energy,=20 stripping past assets.

The common assumption these days is that we muster our weapons to = secure oil,=20 not food. There=92s a little joke in this. Ever since we ran out of = arable land,=20 food is oil. Every single calorie we eat is backed by at least a calorie = of oil,=20 more like ten. In 1940 the average farm in the United States produced = 2.3=20 calories of food energy for every calorie of fossil energy it used. By = 1974 (the=20 last year in which anyone looked closely at this issue), that ratio was = 1:1. And=20 this understates the problem, because at the same time that there is = more oil in=20 our food there is less oil in our oil. A couple of generations ago we = spent a=20 lot less energy drilling, pumping, and distributing than we do now. In = the 1940s=20 we got about 100 barrels of oil back for every barrel of oil we spent = getting=20 it. Today each barrel invested in the process returns only ten, a = calculation=20 that no doubt fails to include the fuel burned by the Hummers and = Blackhawks we=20 use to maintain access to the oil in Iraq.

David Pimentel, an expert on food and energy at Cornell University, = has=20 estimated that if all of the world ate the way the United States eats, = humanity=20 would exhaust all known global fossil-fuel reserves in just over seven = years.=20 Pimentel has his detractors. Some have accused him of being off on other = calculations by as much as 30 percent. Fine. Make it ten years.

Fertilizer makes a pretty fine bomb right off the shelf, a chemistry = lesson=20 Timothy McVeigh taught at Oklahoma City=92s Alfred P. Murrah Federal = Building in=20 1995=97not a small matter, in that the green revolution has made = nitrogen=20 fertilizers ubiquitous in some of the more violent and desperate corners = of the=20 world. Still, there is more to contemplate in nitrogen=92s less = sensational=20 chemistry.

The chemophobia of modern times excludes fear of the simple elements = of=20 chemistry=92s periodic table. We circulate petitions, hold hearings, = launch=20 websites, and buy and sell legislators in regard to polysyllabic organic = compounds=97polychlorinated biphenyls, polyvinyls, DDT, 2-4d, that sort = of=20 thing=97not simple carbon or nitrogen. Not that agriculture=92s use of = the more=20 ornate chemistry is benign=97an infant born in a rural, wheat-producing = county in=20 the United States has about twice the chance of suffering birth defects = as one=20 born in a rural place that doesn=92t produce wheat, an effect = researchers blame on=20 chlorophenoxy herbicides. Focusing on pesticide pollution, though, = misses the=20 worst of the pollutants. Forget the polysyllabic organics. It is = nitrogen=97the=20 wellspring of fertility relied upon by every Eden-obsessed backyard = gardener and=20 suburban groundskeeper=97that we should fear most.

Those who model our planet as an organism do so on the basis that the = earth=20 appears to breathe=97it thrives by converting a short list of basic = elements from=20 one compound into the next, just as our own bodies cycle oxygen into = carbon=20 dioxide and plants cycle carbon dioxide into oxygen. In fact, two of the = planet=92s most fundamental humors are oxygen and carbon dioxide. = Another is=20 nitrogen.

Nitrogen can be released from its =93fixed=94 state as a solid in the = soil by=20 natural processes that allow it to circulate freely in the atmosphere. = This also=20 can be done artificially. Indeed, humans now contribute more nitrogen to = the=20 nitrogen cycle than the planet itself does. That is, humans have doubled = the=20 amount of nitrogen in play.

This has led to an imbalance. It is easier to create nitrogen = fertilizer than=20 it is to apply it evenly to fields. When farmers dump nitrogen on a = crop, much=20 is wasted. It runs into the water and soil, where it either reacts = chemically=20 with its surroundings to form new compounds or flows off to fertilize = something=20 else, somewhere else.

That chemical reaction, called acidification, is noxious and = contributes=20 significantly to acid rain. One of the compounds produced by = acidification is=20 nitrous oxide, which aggravates the greenhouse effect. Green growing = things=20 normally offset global warming by sucking up carbon dioxide, but = nitrogen on=20 farm fields plus methane from decomposing vegetation make every farmed = acre,=20 like every acre of Los Angeles freeway, a net contributor to global = warming.=20 Fertilization is equally worrisome. Rainfall and irrigation water = inevitably=20 washes the nitrogen from fields to creeks and streams, which flows into = rivers,=20 which floods into the ocean. This explains why the Mississippi River, = which=20 drains the nation=92s Corn Belt, is an environmental catastrophe. The = nitrogen=20 fertilizes artificially large blooms of algae that in growing suck all = the=20 oxygen from the water, a condition biologists call anoxia, which means=20 =93oxygen-depleted.=94 Here there=92s no need to calculate long-term = effects, because=20 life in such places has no long term: everything dies immediately. The=20 Mississippi River=92s heavily fertilized effluvia has created a dead = zone in the=20 Gulf of Mexico the size of New Jersey.

America=92s biggest crop, grain corn, is completely unpalatable. It = is raw=20 material for an industry that manufactures food substitutes. Likewise, = you can=92t=20 eat unprocessed wheat. You certainly can=92t eat hay. You can eat = unprocessed=20 soybeans, but mostly we don=92t. These four crops cover 82 percent of = American=20 cropland. Agriculture in this country is not about food; it=92s about = commodities=20 that require the outlay of still more energy to become food.

About two thirds of U.S. grain corn is labeled =93processed,=94 = meaning it is=20 milled and otherwise refined for food or industrial uses. More than 45 = percent=20 of that becomes sugar, especially high-fructose corn sweeteners, the = keystone=20 ingredient in three quarters of all processed foods, especially soft = drinks, the=20 food of America=92s poor and working classes. It is not a coincidence = that the=20 American pandemic of obesity tracks rather nicely with the fivefold = increase in=20 corn-syrup production since Archer Daniels Midland developed a = high-fructose=20 version of the stuff in the early seventies. Nor is it a coincidence = that the=20 plague selects the poor, who eat the most processed food.

It began with the industrialization of Victorian England. The empire = was then=20 flush with sugar from plantations in the colonies. Meantime the cities = were=20 flush with factory workers. There was no good way to feed them. And thus = was=20 born the afternoon tea break, the tea consisting primarily of warm water = and=20 sugar. If the workers were well off, they could also afford bread with = heavily=20 sugared jam=97sugar-powered industrialization. There was a 500 percent = increase in=20 per capita sugar consumption in Britain between 1860 and 1890, around = the time=20 when the life expectancy of a male factory worker was seventeen years. = By the=20 end of the century the average Brit was getting about one sixth of his = total=20 nutrition from sugar, exactly the same percentage Americans get = today=97double=20 what nutritionists recommend.

There is another energy matter to consider here, though. The = grinding,=20 milling, wetting, drying, and baking of a breakfast cereal requires = about four=20 calories of energy for every calorie of food energy it produces. A = two-pound bag=20 of breakfast cereal burns the energy of a half-gallon of gasoline in its = making.=20 All together the food-processing industry in the United States uses = about ten=20 calories of fossil-fuel energy for every calorie of food energy it = produces.=20

That number does not include the fuel used in transporting the food = from the=20 factory to a store near you, or the fuel used by millions of people = driving to=20 thousands of super discount stores on the edge of town, where the land = is cheap.=20 It appears, however, that the corn cycle is about to come full circle. = If a=20 bipartisan coalition of farm-state lawmakers has their way=97and it = appears they=20 will=97we will soon buy gasoline containing twice as much fuel alcohol = as it does=20 now. Fuel alcohol already ranks second as a use for processed corn in = the United=20 States, just behind corn sweeteners. According to one set of = calculations, we=20 spend more calories of fossil-fuel energy making ethanol than we gain = from it.=20 The Department of Agriculture says the ratio is closer to a gallon and a = quart=20 of ethanol for every gallon of fossil fuel we invest. The USDA calls = this a=20 bargain, because gasohol is a =93clean fuel.=94 This claim to cleanness = is in=20 dispute at the tailpipe level, and it certainly ignores the dead zone in = the=20 Gulf of Mexico, pesticide pollution, and the haze of global gases = gathering over=20 every farm field. Nor does this claim cover clean conscience; some still = might=20 be unsettled knowing that our SUVs=92 demands for fuel compete with the = poor=92s=20 demand for grain.

Green eaters, especially vegetarians, advocate eating low on the food = chain,=20 a simple matter of energy flow. Eating a carrot gives the diner all that = carrot=92s energy, but feeding carrots to a chicken, then eating the = chicken,=20 reduces the energy by a factor of ten. The chicken wastes some energy, = stores=20 some as feathers, bones, and other inedibles, and uses most of it just = to live=20 long enough to be eaten. As a rough rule of thumb, that factor of ten = applies to=20 each level up the food chain, which is why some fish, such as tuna, can = be a=20 horror in all of this. Tuna is a secondary predator, meaning it not only = doesn=92t=20 eat plants but eats other fish that themselves eat other fish, adding a = zero to=20 the multiplier each notch up, easily a hundred times, more like a = thousand times=20 less efficient than eating a plant.

This is fine as far as it goes, but the vegetarian=92s case can break = down on=20 some details. On the moral issues, vegetarians claim their habits are = kinder to=20 animals, though it is difficult to see how wiping out 99 percent of = wildlife=92s=20 habitat, as farming has done in Iowa, is a kindness. In rural Michigan, = for=20 example, the potato farmers have a peculiar tactic for dealing with the=20 predations of whitetail deer. They gut-shoot them with small-bore = rifles, in=20 hopes the deer will limp off to the woods and die where they won=92t = stink up the=20 potato fields.

Animal rights aside, vegetarians can lose the edge in the energy = argument by=20 eating processed food, with its ten calories of fossil energy for every = calorie=20 of food energy produced. The question, then, is: Does eating processed = food such=20 as soy burger or soy milk cancel the energy benefits of vegetarianism, = which is=20 to say, can I eat my lamb chops in peace? Maybe. If I=92ve done my due = diligence,=20 I will have found out that the particular lamb I am eating was both = local and=20 grass-fed, two factors that of course greatly reduce the embedded energy = in a=20 meal. I know of ranches here in Montana, for instance, where sheep eat = native=20 grass under closely controlled circumstances=97no farming, no plows, no = corn, no=20 nitrogen. Assets have not been stripped. I can=92t eat the grass = directly. This=20 can go on. There are little niches like this in the system. Each = person=92s=20 individual charge is to find such niches.

Chances are, though, any meat eater will come out on the short end of = this=20 argument, especially in the United States. Take the case of beef. Cattle = are=20 grazers, so in theory could live like the grass-fed lamb. Some cattle=20 cultures=97those of South America and Mexico, for example=97have = perfected wonderful=20 cuisines based on grass-fed beef. This is not our habit in the United = States,=20 and it is simply a matter of habit. Eighty percent of the grain the = United=20 States produces goes to livestock. Seventy-eight percent of all of our = beef=20 comes from feed lots, where the cattle eat grain, mostly corn and wheat. = So do=20 most of our hogs and chickens. The cattle spend their adult lives packed = shoulder to shoulder in a space not much bigger than their bodies, up to = their=20 knees in shit, being stuffed with grain and a constant stream of = antibiotics to=20 prevent the disease this sort of confinement invariably engenders. The = manure is=20 rich in nitrogen and once provided a farm=92s fertilizer. The feedlots, = however,=20 are now far removed from farm fields, so it is simply not = =93efficient=94 to haul it=20 to cornfields. It is waste. It exhales methane, a global-warming gas. It = pollutes streams. It takes thirty-five calories of fossil fuel to make a = calorie=20 of beef this way; sixty-eight to make one calorie of pork.

Still, these livestock do something we can=92t. They convert = grain=92s=20 carbohydrates to high-quality protein. All well and good, except that = per capita=20 protein production in the United States is about double what an average = adult=20 needs per day. Excess cannot be stored as protein in the human body but = is=20 simply converted to fat. This is the end result of a factory-farm system = that=20 appears as a living, continental-scale monument to Rube Goldberg, a = black-mass=20 remake of the loaves-and-fishes miracle. Prairie=92s productivity is = lost for=20 grain, grain=92s productivity is lost in livestock, livestock=92s = protein is lost to=20 human fat=97all federally subsidized for about $15 billion a year, two = thirds of=20 which goes directly to only two crops, corn and wheat.

This explains why the energy expert David Pimentel is so worried that = the=20 rest of the world will adopt America=92s methods. He should be, because = the rest=20 of the world is. Mexico now feeds 45 percent of its grain to livestock, = up from=20 5 percent in 1960. Egypt went from 3 percent to 31 percent in the same = period,=20 and China, with a sixth of the world=92s population, has gone from 8 = percent to 26=20 percent. All of these places have poor people who could use the grain, = but they=20 can=92t afford it.

I live among elk and have learned to respect them. One moonlit night = during=20 the dead of last winter, I looked out my bedroom window to see about = twenty of=20 them grazing a plot of grass the size of a living room. Just that small = patch=20 among acres of other species of native prairie grass. Why that species = and only=20 that species of grass that night in the worst of winter when the threat = to their=20 survival was the greatest? What magic nutrient did this species alone = contain?=20 What does a wild animal know that we don=92t? I think we need this = knowledge.

Food is politics. That being the case, I voted twice in 2002. The day = after=20 Election Day, in a truly dismal mood, I climbed the mountain behind my = house and=20 found a small herd of elk grazing native grasses in the morning = sunlight. My=20 respect for these creatures over the years has become great enough that = on that=20 morning I did not hesitate but went straight to my job, which was to = rack a=20 shell and drop one cow elk, my household=92s annual protein supply. I = voted with=20 my weapon of choice=97an act not all that uncommon in this world, = largely, I=20 think, as a result of the way we grow food. I can see why it is catching = on.=20 Such a vote has a certain satisfying heft and finality about it. My = particular=20 bit of violence, though, is more satisfying, I think, than the rest of = the=20 globe=92s ordinary political mayhem. I used a rifle to opt out of an = insane=20 system. I killed, but then so did you when you bought that package of = burger,=20 even when you bought that package of tofu burger. I killed, then the = rest of=20 those elk went on, as did the grasses, the birds, the trees, the = coyotes,=20 mountain lions, and bugs, the fundamental productivity of an intact = natural=20 system, all of it went on.

About the Author

Richard Manning is the author of Against the Grain: How = Agriculture Has=20 Hijacked Civilization, published by North Point Press.

This is The Oil We Eat, a feature, = originally=20 from February 2004, published Friday, July 23, 2004. It is part of Features, which is part = of Harpers.org.=20

Navigate by Hierarchy
Prev: Baghdad Year=20 Zero
Next: A Run on = Terror
Up: Features

Navigate by Time=20 of Publication
Prev: Weekly=20 Review
Next: Club Life = Among=20 Outcasts

Permanent URL
http://harpers.org/TheOilWeE= at.html

Sponsored Links: Kids bedding =B7 LipSense Guaranteed long = lasting=20 lipstick =B7 Guaranteed long lasting = lipstick =B7=20 Personalized Gift Ideas =B7 Poker California =B7 Casinos Canadian =B7 Bingo Games =B7 Physician Directory =B7 Chiropractor Directory =B7 web directory =B7 Compare Credit Card Offers =B7 Place Your = Link=20 Here!

Jun 2004
S	M	T	W	T	F	S
		1	2	3	4	5
6	7	8	9	10	11	12
13	14	15	16	17	18	19
20	21	22	23	24	25	26
27	28	29	30

Jun 2004

Jul 2004
S	M	T	W	T	F	S
				1	2	3
4	5	6	7	8	9	10
11	12	13	14	15	16	17
18	19<= /A>	20	21	22	23	24
25	26	27	28	29	30	31

Jul 2004

19<= /A>

Aug 2004
S	M	T	W	T	F	S
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24	25	26	27	28
29	30<= BR>	31

Aug 2004

30<= BR>

The Oil We Eat

Following the food chain back to Iraq

About the Author

Recently Added

Calendar