Peak Oil Task Force Report - City of Bloomington - State of Indiana

Indeed, it is estimated that the U.S. food system uses 17 percent of the total energy
consumed in the nation each year – about 10 barrels of oil equivalent per person. 222
Food Retail
0.3 calorie
Packaging
0.5 calorie
Processing
1.2 calories
Commercial Food Service
0.5 calorie
Transport
1 calorie
Farming
1.6 calories
Household Storage &
Preparation
2.3 calories
Energy Used to Yield One Food Calorie. 223 The U.S. American food system uses 7.3 calories to produce and
deliver one calorie of food energy.
222
Pat Murphy, Plan C: Community Survival Strategies for Peak Oil and Climate Change. (Gabriola Island, BC:
New Society Publishers, 2008).
223 Adapted from Heinberg and Bomford, Food and Farming and M.C. Heller and G.A. Keoleian, Life Cycle­Based
Sustainability Indicators for Assessment of the U.S. Food System, University of Michigan (2000).
Report of the Bloomington Peak Oil Task Force 174