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Peak Oil Primer

© Bob Ewing

The systems that produce the world's food supply are heavily dependent on fossil fuels. What might this mean for our community food supply? What does this mean for our own food security? We will be exploring these questions over the next few weeks. This week we start with a look at what is called "Peak Oil" and the controversy behind it.

Peak Oil is a complex subject. Not everyone agrees that there is such as thing as "Peak Oil". Not everyone who accepts "Peak Oil" as a serious issue, agrees on the consequences for our society. In order to develop an understanding on what it could mean, first, I have provided the following quotes and their sources.

"Oil will not just "run out" because all oil production follows a bell curve. This is true whether we're talking about an individual field, a country, or on the planet as a whole.

Oil is increasingly plentiful on the upslope of the bell curve, increasingly scarce and expensive on the down slope. The peak of the curve coincides with the point at which the endowment of oil has been 50 percent depleted. Once the peak is passed, oil production begins to go down while cost begins to go up.

In practical and considerably oversimplified terms, this means that if 2000 was the year of global Peak Oil, worldwide oil production in the year 2020 will be the same as it was in 1980. However, the world's population in 2020 will be both much larger (approximately twice) and much more industrialized (oil-dependent) than it was in 1980.

Consequently, worldwide demand for oil will outpace worldwide production of oil by a significant margin. As a result, the price will skyrocket, oil-dependant economies will crumble, and resource wars will explode."

www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/

"Not only is the contemporary food system inherently unsustainable, increasingly, it is damaging the environment.

The systems that produce the world's food supply are heavily dependent on fossil fuels. Vast amounts of oil and gas are used as raw materials and energy in the manufacture of fertilisers and pesticides, and as cheap and readily available energy at all stages of food production: from planting, irrigation, feeding and harvesting, through to processing, distribution and packaging.

In addition, fossil fuels are essential in the construction and the repair of equipment and infrastructure needed to facilitate this industry, including farm machinery, processing facilities, storage, ships, trucks and roads. The industrial food supply system is one of the biggest consumers of fossil fuels and one of the greatest producers of greenhouse gases.

The copyright of the article Peak Oil Primer in From Field To Table is owned by Bob Ewing. Permission to republish Peak Oil Primer in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.