The miracle of the Green Revolution was made possible by cheap fossil fuels to supply crops with artificial
fertilizer, pesticides, and irrigation. Estimates of the net energy balance of agriculture in the United States
show that ten calories of hydrocarbon energy are required to produce one calorie of food. Such an imbalance cannot
continue in a world of diminishing hydrocarbon resources.
Eating Fossil Fuels examines the interlinked crises of energy and agriculture and highlights some startling findings:
The worldwide expansion of agriculture has appropriated fully 40 percent of the photosynthetic capability of this
planet.
The Green Revolution provided abundant food sources for many, resulting in a population explosion well in excess
of the planet's carrying capacity.
Studies suggest that without fossil fuel-based agriculture, the United States could only sustain about two-thirds
of its present population. For the planet as a whole, the sustainable number is estimated to be about two billion.
Concluding that the effect of energy depletion will be disastrous without a transition to a sustainable, re-localized
agriculture, the book draws on the experiences of North Korea and Cuba to demonstrate stories of failure and success
in the transition to non-hydrocarbon-based agriculture. It urges strong grassroots activism for sustainable, localized
agriculture and a natural shrinking of the world's population.