Think about going to the grocery store, and anything that you’re buying. The packaging. Fossil fuel based. The transportation, how it got there. Fossil fuels. The refrigeration, probably fossil fuels. The equipment, the infrastructure… It’s all fossil fuels.
I consider fossil fuels to be, and this isn’t a compliment, the lifeblood of the food industry.
I made this claim in Fuel to Fork, a brand new podcast series that delves deep into this hidden ingredient in our food systems.
Launched on Thursday 24 October, Fuel to Fork is a collaboration between IPES-Food, TABLE Debates and Global Alliance for the Future of Food. In 7 episodes, Fuel to Fork exposes how fossil fuels power everything from farm to fork, and what the options are for reducing our dependence on them.
From farm to table, fossil fuels are everywhere in our food systems. They account for 15% of global fossil fuel use through fuel, processing, transport, plastics, refrigeration and cooking.
Food systems use 15% of global fossil fuels.
The majority of fossil fuel consumption is in the processing and packaging stage (42%), and in retail consumption and waste (38%). Farm inputs and powering farms together account for 20% of energy use in food systems.
For every calorie on our plates, around 10 calories of fossil fuels are burnt to get it there.
When we talk about the future of food, we often focus on changing what we grow and eat. But, after leaving the farm, the way our food is processed, packaged, and transported plays a huge role in the fossil fuel reliance of our food system. And this stage is becoming even more energy-intensive, thanks to ultra-processed foods and longer supply chains.
Food-related plastics and fertilizers together represent 40% of petrochemical products. As demand for fossil fuels for transport, power, and heating declines due to electrification and demand reduction measures, the fossil fuel industry is investing significantly in petrochemicals to produce plastics and agrochemicals and lock in fossil dependence. Petrochemicals are rapidly becoming the most significant driver of global oil demand (for plastics) and gas demand (for fertilizers), with production expected to increase substantially through 2050. Fertilizers account for 5% of global natural gas consumption. The use of nitrogen fertilizers could still grow by another 50% until 2050.
The global food system is undermining efforts to halt climate change. According to Anna Lappé of the Global Alliance for the Future of Food, “If we don’t push conversations like this one, then I think that we could, in trying to solve one problem, we create many more problems… Pesticides are a petrochemical. Nitrogen fertilizers are a form of petrochemicals as well. The International Energy Agency projects that petrochemicals will account for more than two thirds of global oil demand growth by 2026. Plastics and fertilizers together account for about three quarters of all petrochemicals produced, and so they’re major drivers of this growth.”
Fossil fuels, the hidden ingredient in processed food.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
We choose what we eat and where our food comes from. Humans have shaped 10,000 years of agriculture, and just a fraction of that time has involved fossil fuels. Many of the solutions to this crisis are being explored on the frontlines in the Global South and in downstream working class communities in the United States. These solutions are compelling but will require a carefully planned, publicly-financed Just Transition to implement.
According to Anna Lappé, “And so my concern is that if we do not do a better job at bringing those who care about phasing out fossil fuels, together with those about transforming food systems into conversation with each other, that we could miss this huge growth area that industry has set its sights on, which is petrochemicals.”