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Tuesday, February 7, 2012
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Food

Michael Pollan: Energy and climate change

Read more: CLIMATE CHANGE, MICHAEL POLLAN, SOLAR POWER

Michael Pollan was the keynote speaker at the Georgia Organics Conference March 21, 2009. The event was held at Agnes Scott College. He addressed the audience after they enjoyed a farmers feast (made from local food) about his thoughts on the "state of the movement." The address is available for viewing in its entirety or in separate parts.
(Meredith Darlington/MNN)
 
Watch the entire Michael Pollan: State of the Movement Address
Michael Pollan: Introduction
Michael Pollan: Components of the address
Michael Pollan: Energy and climate change
Michael Pollan: Healthcare crisis
Michael Pollan: A history of food policy
Michael Pollan: Food reform framework
Michael Pollan: How did we get to his point?
Michael Pollan: The problem with monocultures
Michael Pollan: Polycultures: A step in the right direction
Michael Pollan: Get animals back on farms
Michael Pollan: Not enough farmers
Michael Pollan: Decentralizing food
Michael Pollan: Local economies
Michael Pollan: The food culture
Michael Pollan: Make me do it
 
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Transcript:
 
Michael:  Let’s talk about energy and climate change. The food system, by which I mean not just the way we grow food, but the way we process it and transport it, uses more fossil fuel, about 20 percent of the total, and contributes more greenhouse gas, not just C02, but methane and nitrous oxide, to the atmosphere than any other industry, somewhere between, depending on the scientists you listen to, 17 and 34 percent.
 
The 20thcentury industrialization of agriculture has transformed the way we grow food from a process that in 1940 could take one calorie of fossil fuel energy and produce two calories to food, to one that takes ten calories of fossil fuel energy to produce one calorie of supermarket food. And it gets worse when you look at meat production. Feedlot beef takes 55 calories of fossil fuel energy to produce one calorie of meat. So, that leaves us where we are. That when we eat from the industrial food chain today, we are eating oil and spewing greenhouse gas. Not a very pretty image.
 
But it’s also an absurdity when you consider, when you remember that every calorie of food you have ever eaten is the result of photosynthesis. Right? It all begins, whether you're eating meat or vegetables, with that miracle. A plant taking sunlight, water, simple minerals, and creating edible energy. And there is great hope, I think, in that simple fact. Food is the original solar technology, and the challenge we face, of course, is to get back to that simple fact. 
 
End

 

 
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    anonymous
    Global Changes 05/14/2009 05:57 AM

    Climate Change is an important issue. We must find ways to reduce the greenhouse gasses we emit in food production.

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