Energy-smart agricultural systems: decoupling oil from food production

ByAna Benoliel Coutinho

Energy-smart agricultural systems: decoupling oil from food production

In December 2020 subnational governments, UN agencies, and non-governmental organizations working with food systems and climate change launched the Glasgow Food and Climate Declaration. This acknowledges the importance of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions of current food production systems which account for 21-37% of total emissions produced by all sectors. It also recognizes the primary role of industrial food and farming systems in existing unsustainable dynamics, thereby highlighting their carbon and energy footprint. This article points out the weak position of high energy-consuming modern agriculture and food systems as well as providing an introduction to the possible solutions being explored as alternatives to fuel-based agricultural systems.

It is a fact that modern industrialised agriculture represents a model that uses large amounts of energy coming from fossil fuels, the burning of which is one of the main sources of GHG emissions that drive climate change.

“Fossil fuels are essential for modern, mechanized agricultural production systems. Petroleum products are used directly to power tractors, machinery, and irrigation, and to transport, transform and package agricultural products. They are also used indirectly to manufacture fertilizers and pesticides and prepare seeds.” (UNEP)

As a case in point, synthetic phosphorus fertilizers are produced from a phosphate rock, the mining of which requires machinery using fuels from crude oil. Another farm input which is energy-intensive, albeit not oil-dependent, is synthetic nitrogen fertilizer, the main source of which is natural gas.

“Nitrogen fertilizer is cited as the biggest energy sink in non-organic production. […] The production of one tonne of nitrogen fertilizer utilises one to one and a half tonnes of equivalent petrol.” (FAO)

Furthermore, certain pesticides – synthetic chemical substances used to manage weeds and undesirable organisms in agriculture – are derived from crude oil. The tractors used by farmers are also powered by fuels refined from crude oil. While these are all on-farm activities, the need for petrol continues beyond the farm gate. More resources are required to package and then transport the food that farms produce around the country as well as beyond its borders.

Globalization and the long supply chains associated with it evidence that most food is transported around nations and globally, rather than being consumed close to its point of production. This is especially true in developed countries.

Thus, there is a strong link between conventional farming and the fossil fuel industry, something that makes these food systems susceptible to the vagaries of the availability and price of crude oil. The fact that oil reserves are dwindling and that this endangers the food production that relies on it was and continues to be of concern across nations.

For this reason, more attention has been given to less conventional methods of farming and initiatives that can reduce the energy costs involved in agriculture and also increase carbon storage in living systems, e.g. regenerative, organic agriculture and agroecology.

See also| Agroecology: an opportunity for fragile farms

For instance, some organic farms and regenerative crop-systems use approximately half the energy of that used by industrial agriculture and have the potential to significantly ‘draw down carbon from the atmosphere’ (Rhodes, 2017). In these systems, converting to no-till methods which allow the producer to phase out the use of pesticides and fertilizers were shown to be effective as they significantly reduced fossil fuel use. These alternative approaches are based on the use of more ‘renewable’ sources of soil fertility, e.g., recycling crop waste, long-term rotations – methods that help to decouple food production from the fossil fuel industry which has always been at the core of conventional farming.

Modernised agriculture is high energy-consuming and produces a substantial amount of GHG emissions. While this has been always the case, due to the current biodiversity and climate crises, such methods as regenerative agriculture and agroecology are regaining attention worldwide as they are nature-based and can help to meet the climate goals established by the Paris Agreement.