Canning P, Charles A, Huang S, Polenske K R, Waters A (2010). "Energy Use in the U.S. Food System, Economic research report No 94" Economic Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture.
Summary
Energy is an important input in growing, processing, packaging, distributing, storing, preparing, serving, and disposing of food. Analysis using the two most recent U.S. benchmark input-output accounts and a national energy data system shows that in the United States, use of energy along the food chain for food purchases by or for U.S. households increased between 1997 and 2002 at more than six times the rate of increase in total domestic energy use. This increase in food-related energy flows is over 80 percent of energy flow increases nationwide over the period.
During 1997-2002, per capita energy use in the United States declined 1.8 percent, while per capita food-related energy use in the United States increased by 16.4 percent. The population of the United States grew by more than 14 million over the period, pushing total energy use up by 3.3 percent and effecting an increase in total food-related energy use of 22.4 percent. As a share of the national energy budget, food-related energy use grew from 12.2 percent in 1997 to 14.4 percent in 2002.
Several economic factors can influence the use of energy throughout the U.S. food system, such as labor and energy costs, the ability to substitute between these inputs as their costs change, the time availability of households for food-related activities, and household affluence. Findings suggest that about half of the growth in food-related energy use between 1997 and 2002 is explained by a shift from human labor toward a greater reliance on energy services across nearly all food expenditure categories. High labor costs in the food services and food processing industries, combined with household outsourcing of manual food preparation and cleanup efforts through increased consumption of prepared foods and more eating out, appear to be driving this result. Increases in per capita food expenditures (adjusted for inflation) and population growth also helped drive up food-related energy use over this period, with each trend accounting for roughly a quarter of the total increase.
Energy use and growth varied across all stages of the U.S. food supply chain (agriculture, processing, packaging, transportation, wholesale/retail, food service, and household). Household operations accounted for the highest food related energy use in 1997 and 2002. Food processing, however, showed the largest growth in energy use over this period, as both households and food service establishments increasingly outsourced manual food preparation and cleanup activities to the manufacturing sector, which relied on energy using technologies to carry out these processes. Over this period, the food processing and food service industries faced increasing labor costs, while energy prices in this period were lower and far less volatile than they have become since 2002. In agriculture, the largest percentage increases in energy use were attributed to producers of vegetables and poultry products. The freight services industry accounted for a small share of the increase in overall food-related energy use but a substantial share of the increase attributed to some food commodities - particularly fresh fruit and poultry products.
A projection of food-related energy use based on 2007 total U.S. energy consumption and food expenditure data and the benchmark 2002 input-output accounts suggests that food-related energy use as a share of the national energy budget grew from 14.4 percent in 2002 to an estimated 15.7 percent in 2007. Although energy prices were high and volatile over the 2002-07 period, households and the food service industry continued to outsource food preparation through the purchase of prepared foods with high energy-use requirements.
The report is attached below.
NB: Technological innovation appears to have led to the development of more energy using technologies to replace labour, rather than spurring energy efficiency. If you're interested in discussions around the role that technology has to play in shaping behaviour you may want to have a look at the FCRN report on food refrigeration: Food refrigeration: What is the contribution to Greenhouse Gas emissions and how might emissions be reduced?
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