Sustainable Urban Living: Green Solar Energy for Food and Biofuels Production - Design with the Desert: Conservation and Sustainable Development - page 412

A solution to the challenge of water, a critical issue throughout the ages, remains pos-
sibly the most vital global issue today, especially for the West. Solutions to the problem of
water present only two alternatives:
• Find, harvest, and transport more water.
• Develop food and energy sources that require no or minimal fresh water.
Alternative one replicates the unsustainable actions of the last 50 years—using wider pipes,
larger pumps, and deeper holes to mine more nonrenewable water faster to grow crops. Even
if energy for pumping were free, this approach depletes aquifers within a few decades and
makes the land unsustainable for both crops and people. Powerful modern pumps draw
water from deeper and deeper wells—at an unsustainable cost of both power and water.
Unsustainable use of fossil water foretells severe hunger and starvation for future generations.
Alternative two leaves the aquifers in place to support people, businesses, and food
crops now and for future generations. The world desperately needs an efficient agriculture
system that produces nutritional food and reliable clean energy and does not rely on
freshwater.
24.3 Consumption of Fossil Fuels
Industrialized agriculture is a costly business and fossil resources are the currency used
to grow food. After cars, food production consumes more fossil fuel than any other
sector of the economy—about 20%. 5 Industrialized agriculture depends on fossil fuels for
farm machinery, food processing, packaging, transportation, fertilizers, herbicides, and
pesticides (Figure 24.1). Farmers may cross a field six to nine times on tractors, trucks, or
harvesters to produce each crop.* Tractors pulling plows, disks, cultivators, planters, spray
equipment, and harvesters consume huge amounts of fuel (Figure 24.2).
David Pimentel and Ted Patzek analyzed the fossil energy inputs to U.S. corn produc-
tion and concluded that machinery and fuel, used to reduce human and animal labor, total
about 25% of the fossil energy input and the remaining 75% is invested in agricultural
chemicals to increase crop productivity. 6 Failing access to fossil resources, modern agri-
culture could produce only a fraction of current food production because the majority of
fossil energy goes to enhance crop productivity.
Globally, farmers put millions of tons of fossil fuel-based herbicides, pesticides, and
fungicides on crops to control undesired weeds and pests. These agricultural chemicals
are produced using extensive fossil fuels and chemicals. The unintended consequence of
expanded use of agricultural chemicals, besides pollution and human health problems,
can be seen in resistance figures. In 1950, there were about 10 species of insects resis-
tant to pesticides. Today, there are over 600. Similarly, the number of weeds with herbi-
cide resistance was near zero in 1950 but there are more than 400 today. 7 Even though
insecticide use has increased 10-fold, crop loss from insects is double the level it was in
the 1940s—about 13%. † Pest resistance forces farmers to continually add more chemicals
which consume more fossil fuel.
* Personal interview, Marvin Morrison, Arizona farmer, July 2003.
† In brief, Environment , September 2001, p. 8.