ABSTRACT
I hope that by now the reader appreciates the nature of the problems of use of fossil fuel energy in the nation’s food system and the serious implications they may have for the future if nothing is done about them. My object has been to provide quantitative information about the rate at which energy is being used up to enable us to eat the way we do eat, and to suggest some ways in which economies might be made. I have related this to the total fossil fuel energy used by the nation but have not discussed the ways in which energy is used for nonfood purposes, or how savings might be made in these areas because I am not qualified to do so. I have drawn attention to the food problems of the world and I have mentioned the economic, social, and political considerations which affect the food system both within the United States itself and in the world as a whole and which, together with the technological considerations, make up the total system which needs to be studied in detail.
