THE SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
May 09, 2006 Tuesday
EDITORIAL; Pg. B6
21ST-CENTURY ENERGY: BUYING LOCALLY
As Washingtonians look for energy questions, some of the answers may be as
close as their own kitchens, neighborhood farmers markets or a farm just across
the Cascades.
During a recent lunch arranged by Seattle's environmental-minded Bullitt
Foundation, writer Michael Pollan said the United States could make quicker
gains in its energy use for food than in transportation. He's on to something. The
Worldwatch Institute estimated in a 2002 report that 17 percent of U.S. fossil fuel
consumption goes to producing, packing and transporting food.
That impacts everything from food prices to air quality and global warming, which
is one reason Washington State University operates a Climate Friendly Farming
program. Its research efforts include work on an anaerobic digester to produce
methane and usable byproducts from manure. In Washington and nationally, a
variety of initiatives encourage better use of energy in food production, and more
are needed.
In recent decades, comprehensive regional agriculture systems have largely
given way to specialized production here and, increasingly, abroad. So, trucks,
ships and planes deliver food over huge distances. Researchers at Iowa State
University's Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture found that for their state
alone, just a 10 percent increase in consumption of locally produced food would
lead to measurable reductions in oil use and greenhouse gas emissions.
Some, including Pollan, say stopping or limiting expansion of free trade into
agriculture would have economic, social and national security benefits as well as
environmental and energy advantages. Short of that, though, there is much
consumers can do to support food produced nearby.
Farmers markets have exploded in popularity. That kind of consumer awareness
combined with public programs to encourage energy-efficient farming can be part
of the solution to energy problems now and in the future.