How Fossil Fuels Became The Lifeblood Of The Food Supply.

A new report from renowned international thinktank IPES-Food, Fuel To Fork, documents how fossil fuels are the lifeblood of the food industry. From how food is grown, processed, and packaged, to how it’s refrigerated and delivered, nearly every step is fossil fuel-based. Given ever more frequent climate-change fueled extreme weather events and their impacts on the food supply, the report could not be more timely.

Fossil fuels are deeply embedded in every part of the food chain – accounting for at least 15% of total fossil fuel use globally – and their use in food systems is accelerating.

“The food system isn’t just a supply chain. It’s a system that makes fossil-fueled farming, plastic packaging, and ultra-processing feel perfectly normal. Fossil fuels are there every step of the way, making normal some of the weirdest things about the way we eat”, University of Texas research professor Raj Patel, quoted in Fuel to Fork.

Just think about a trip to the grocery store.

You just bought a bag of salad, a bag of potato chips, a squeeze bottle of mustard and a pack of hot dogs.

The salad, picked by farmworkers commuting to work in gas powered trucks, the salad washed and sorted by fossil-fuel powered machines, bagged in clear poly plastic bags, transported to wholesalers and retailers in diesel powered trucks, shrink-wrapped in plastic poly, then merchandised in refrigerated store coolers powered mostly by fossil fuels.

The potatoes, grown with the use of fossil fuel-derived nitrogenous fertilizers and sprayed with fossil fuel-derived pesticides, herbicides and fungicides, and harvested by diesel powered tractors, washed and sorted by fossil fuel powered machines, transported to processors on diesel-powered trucks, sliced, deep fried, cooled and sorted by fossil-fuel powered processing lines, packaged in foil-lines plastic bags, boxed up and shrink-wrapped in clear poly plastic, transported to wholesalers and retailers on mostly diesel powered trucks.

The hot dogs, made from cows fed diets of genetically modified corn and soy, the crops grown through the use of fossil fuel based nitrogenous fertilizers and heavily sprayed with herbicides and pesticides partially derived from fossil fuels, the fattened cows transported on diesel trucks or coal powered rail cars, to abattoirs powered by fossil fuels, the cow parts wrapped in plastic poly wrap, the cases shrink wrapped in plastic poly wrap and transported to wholesalers and retailers on diesel trucks, where they are unwrapped, cut and displayed in refrigerated coolers or re-wrapped in plastic vacuum-sealed packaging for display in freezers, all powered primarily by fossil fuels.

This is how your whole pantry, every meal and every snack, is made from fossil fuels.

Key findings from the report include:

• 40% of all global petrochemicals are consumed by food systems, mainly in the form of synthetic fertilizers and plastic packaging for food and beverages.
• One-third of all petrochemicals go toward producing synthetic nitrogen fertilizers, making them the single biggest fossil fuel consumer in agriculture.
• 99% of synthetic nitrogen fertilizers and pesticides are derived from fossil fuels.
• At least 3.5% of global plastics are used in food production, and 10% in food and drink packaging.
• Fossil fuel-dependent food systems are dangerously vulnerable to price shocks, with spikes in the price of oil and gas triggering surges in fertilizer and food prices – putting millions at risk of hunger.
• While food transportation relies on fossil fuels, its role is relatively small compared to the broader fossil fuel footprint of food systems, and it is rapidly electrifying.
• Industry-promoted ‘blue’ ammonia fertilizers, ‘synthetic biology’ approaches, and high-tech, digital farming tools are expensive, energy-intensive, and risk keeping food systems tethered to fossil fuels and farmers dependent on agrochemicals.
• These technologies are controlled by a handful of powerful corporations, locking farmers into industrial monoculture systems, and deepening existing power imbalances in food systems.
• Most of the bioplastics introduced to replace conventional plastics are made from industrially-grown food crops and synthetic chemicals. They can leach harmful chemicals into the environment, and may compete with food production for land and resources.

What the report recommends to get fossil fuels out of food systems:

• Rein in corporate power and democratize food systems governance. The first thing to do is break up the big food processors and retailers. None of the changes will matter otherwise;
• Advance a just energy transition that expands and equitably distributes renewable energy;
• Phase out agrochemicals;
• Promote agroecological farming;
• Rebuild local food supply chains;
• Reduce plastic by scaling up reuse systems and holding corporations accountable;
• Cut ultra-processed food consumption and build healthy food access;
• Scale up clean and electric cooking and eliminate food waste.

Fuel to Fork articulates a critical analysis of what drives the food system, with a hopeful vision of how it can evolve for the good of humanity and the planet. With catastrophic storms, wildfires and floods becoming more commonplace, such a program could not have come at a better time.