ABSTRACT
In the United States, 3.1 percent of the nation’s total use of fossil fuel energy goes into primary agricultural production and 13.8 percent into processing, distribution, and preparation of food, and into other food-related operations. The national system of food processing and distribution, on the other hand, presents a bewildering array of large and small individual businesses carrying out an enormous diversity of operations. The technology of food processing was originally developed to deal with perishable foodstuffs such as fruit and meat, and had its origins in rural practices such as the salting of beef, smoking of ham, or clamping of root crops. Surveys have shown a tremendous range of variations in the energy-efficiency of food-processing operations. Domestic trash, including not only food waste but also packaging materials, has large fossil fuel energy content: by the time it is thrown away, a substantial amount of fossil fuel energy has been put into it.
