query: energy use in food system

john hendrickson (JHENDRIK@macc.wisc.edu)
Tue, 18 Apr 95 10:48 CDT

SANET'ers, here's another query for you all:

I have been collecting information on energy use in the food
system. Specifically, I am interested in the use of energy
across the various sectors of the food system (i.e. production
agriculture, food processing, transportation, wholesale/retail,
and household). All of the data I have been able to find dates
back to the 1970s. Does anyone know of any more recent studies
(or even estimates)? The 1970s data suggests that the entire
food system uses about 15% of the total U.S. energy budget and
that by sector, energy use is approximately as follows:

Food production 20%
Food processing 30%
Wholesale/retail 15%
Transportation 5%
Home preparation 30%

How have these figures changed over time? How has total energy
consumption in the food system changed over the past twenty
years?

Thanks for your help.

John Hendrickson
Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems
University of Wisconsin-Madison
(608) 265-3704
jhendrik@macc.wisc.edu