THE EMBODIED ENERGY OF FOOD - THE ROLE OF DIET

The provision of food within a developed country requires the expendit ure of large amounts of energy. This energy is used within the agricul tural, transportation and retail sectors. Much of this will be energy derived from fossil fuels, implying a potential environmental impact. By using food consumption data from 2197 individuals an estimate is ma de of the width of the distribution of embodied energies for typical U .K. diets. The mean of this distribution is found to be surprisingly l arge, as is the standard deviation, indicating the potential for signi ficant reductions in fossil-fuel-related greenhouse gas emissions by s imple changes in diet. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reser ved.