Feeling Peckish? How Your Breakfast Fuels Our Oil Addiction

Great article on Alternet today by Chad Heeter about the amount of fossil fuels needed to make your average breakfast. According to Heeter “an average of over seven calories of fossil fuel is burned up for every calorie of energy we get from our food. This means that in eating my 400 calorie breakfast, I will, in effect, have ‘consumed’ 2,800 calories of fossil-fuel energy”.

“But this is only an average” he continues. “My cup of coffee gives me only a few calories of energy, but to process just one pound of coffee requires over 8,000 calories of fossil-fuel energy — the equivalent energy found in nearly a quart of crude oil, 30 cubic feet of natural gas, or around two and a half pounds of coal”.

Enjoy that guilt-free cup of coffee tomorrow morning!