ABSTRACT
The world food supply “from paddock-to-plate” consumes energy at all stages along the chain. It is heavily dependent on fossil fuels for agricultural production, transport, food processing, storage, cooking etc. The world will have to produce 60% more food by 2050 than today to meet the growing demands from continuing population growth and higher protein diets according to projections by the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations (FAO, 2009a). Therefore, what will eventuate under business-as-usual is an ever greater reliance on:
• direct fossil fuel inputs used at the operational level on the farm or fishery for harvesting, land preparation, irrigation etc. (e.g. diesel for tractor, trucks and boat fuels, electricity for water pumping, and heat for crop drying) as well as for processing, preparing and cooking food, and
• indirect fossil fuel inputs not directly consumed at the operational level (e.g. natural gas for manufacturing fertilizers, pesticides; coal to produce heat for steel manufacturing for agricultural machinery, cement for buildings and oil products for construction equipment for buildings and roading).
