We are often led to believe the conflict with Islamic extremism is a result of Western aggression towards Muslims. Yet what has become abundantly clear is that most Muslims killed in the Middle East are slain by other Muslims. The real battle is over control of energy, i.e. oil, which is now funding ISIS operations in Iraq and Syria. Indeed, just recently the U.K.'s Times newspaper reported on ISIS seeking managers for its refineries.
When concerns arise about oil we tend to think about the price of petroleum and running our cars. What is often missed is the amount of oil used within the food system. Oil is used in large amounts to produce pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers for farms; it is required to run farm tractors and harvesters to extract the crops; trucks then transport the produce to processing centres full of conveyor belts and other sorting equipment using electricity produced from oil.
The produce is packaged with materials produced by oil and trucked, shipped and flown around the world using even more black gold. From ports and stations it is transported to supermarkets where it is refrigerated in energy-consuming coolers. We then drive to these outlets in our cars to buy the food.
Do you know when carrots are harvested? How about potatoes, cabbage, or onions? Do you know when the tomato season begins? Most people today have not a clue about crop seasons and sadly many children think food simply comes from supermarkets. This is that because the transport system developed for the food industry means we can eat anything we like all year round.
Before the era of industrialised farming, the energy input and output ratio for food measured in calories was 100:1. By 1974 it was just 1:1. I have no idea what it is today, but if you take the example of an iceberg lettuce, which is imported into the U.K. from the USA, each calorie consumed requires 127 calories of energy (aviation fuel) just to deliver. The U.K. also imports asparagus from Chile; yet for each calorie we consume, 97 calories of transport energy is required.
Korea is now a major food importer and this situation requires closer examination as investment in local farming would be preferable to the trade deals about which some countries boast. For example, recent trade between the Netherlands and the U.K dictated that the U.K. would import 61,400 tons of poultry meat and export 33,100 tons back to them; Korea on the other hand would import 240,000 tons of pork, and send back 195,000 tonnes; we would buy 125,000 tons of lamb from them, and in return they would buy 102,000 tons of lamb from us.
If you bought a bottle of tomato ketchup in Sweden, at least up to two years ago, you would have found that the tomatoes had been grown in Italy where they were turned into paste. This paste was placed into plastic bags (made in the Netherlands) and shipped to Sweden. The ketchup was then placed into bottles produced in the U.K. with materials from Japan, Italy, Belgium, the USA and Denmark, with a polypropylene top also made in Denmark.
The answer to rising fuel costs has been to produce fuel from products such as sugar and corn, resulting in higher consumer prices for those commodities.
Some research suggests that 20 percent of all fuel consumed in the USA is devoted to the food system. Korea is not completely in the clear. We still have vegetables grown in one area, sent to another for packaging and returned to their origin for sale.
All countries, including Korea, would benefit from evaluating the packaging industry, which consumes so much energy and waste, although it does create a great deal of employment. The distance between farms and consumers must be reduced, and localised food should be better labelled to allow customers to make an informed choice relative to food miles and freshness.
While such measures will not stop the wars in the Middle East, they might help keep the lights on.
The writer is a criminologist with a master's degree in criminology and criminal psychology. He lives in Diego and his email address is helios@discreet-service.com.