Product Description

The miracle of the Green Revolution was made possible by cheap fossil fuels to supply crops with artificial fertilizer, pesticides, and irrigation. Estimates of the net energy balance of agriculture in the United States show that ten calories of hydrocarbon energy are required to produce one calorie of food. Such an imbalance cannot continue in a world of diminishing hydrocarbon resources.

Eating Fossil Fuels examines the interlinked crises of energy and agriculture and highlights some startling findings:

The worldwide expansion of agriculture has appropriated fully 40 percent of the photosynthetic capability of this planet.
The Green Revolution provided abundant food sources for many, resulting in a population explosion well in excess of the planet's carrying capacity.
Studies suggest that without fossil fuel-based agriculture, the United States could only sustain about two-thirds of its present population. For the planet as a whole, the sustainable number is estimated to be about two billion.

Concluding that the effect of energy depletion will be disastrous without a transition to a sustainable, re-localized agriculture, the book draws on the experiences of North Korea and Cuba to demonstrate stories of failure and success in the transition to non-hydrocarbon-based agriculture. It urges strong grassroots activism for sustainable, localized agriculture and a natural shrinking of the world's population.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #153015 in Books
• Published on: 2006-10-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 125 pages

About the Author
Dale Allen Pfeiffer is a novelist, freelance journalist and geologist who has been writing about energy depletion for a decade, building a reputation as a detailed but accessible science journalist. The author of The End of the Oil Age, he is also widely known for his web project: www.survivingpeakoil.com.

Customer Reviews

OK
Even though I believe that this book is on an important subject, I thought that the material was overly brief and only stated what others have said without proof. Seemed really short on background facts and technical reasoning.

Very informative!
One good thing about this book is that the author does not need 300 pages to explain the Oil/Agricuture relation. What I liked most of this book is the explanation on the evolution of agricuture to these days, making clear that Oil is an important contributor to production performance, due to the use of fertilizers, pesticides and of course the energy derived from it in Industrial Agriculture. I agree with the author that we are beginning a transition to a new way of living, not pleasant, due to the fact that oil depletion will make difficult to attain a sustainable agriculture, even a sustainable civilization with the population numbers we have. The effects are visible, inflation and food crisis.
Most people think that technology will remedy the situation, but if you read more about energy you will realize the future's precarious situation. Governments in the world need to put an eye on it and start doing energy projects, particularly Nuclear. India must control its population growth also. I have my opinion on Cuba but considering all this is a very informative book.

Crisis in Agriculture
I bought this book by Mr. Dale Allen Pfeiffer even after reading his horrible book "The End of the Oil Age." I don't care who this author hates, blames or votes for. I did buy Eating Fossil fuels and I must say that I am glad I did. It's a good work! It's professional. It's well written and in this book the author is not foaming at the mouth political. All liberal democrats leaning to the left just love Cuba and it's redistributing of wealth and the Cuban miracle. The Cubans decided to get up and grow vegetables rather than starving to death. Really, you guys give them too much credit for doing what's necessary to eat. Overall, I liked Mr. Pfeiffer's book. It's well done. Regards, Keith Renick, Peachtree City, Ga.