With industrialized food production, for every one unit of energy put on the table in the United States, how many units of nonrenewable fossil fuel energy are required to produce it?

Question

BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

To tackle this question, we need to compare the energy input required to produce food with the energy that ends up on the table.
Option 5: '5' suggests a five-to-one energy ratio. While some estimates for specific processes might be around this figure, widely cited data on industrialized food systems generally point to a higher energy cost per unit of food than five.
Option 1: '1' would imply the production process uses as much energy as the food provides, which is inconsistent with the reality of mechanized farming, processing, transport, and refrigeration that consume substantial energy surpluses.
Option 7-10: '7-10' indicates that for every unit of energy available on the table, seven to ten units of nonrenewable fossil fuel energy are consumed in production. This aligns with common assessments of the energy intensity of industrialized food systems, which include fertilizer manufacturing, machinery operation, processing plants, cold chains, and distribution networks that collectively require large energy inputs beyond the caloric energy of the food itself.
Option 2: '2' implies a very small energy differential. Given modern agricultural practices and supply chains, the energy demand is well above two, owing to multiple energy-intensive stages from farm to fork.
Option 100: '100' would mean an extremely energy-inefficient system where food production consumes vastly more energy than it provides. While the energy intensity is high, a factor of one hundred vastly overstates typical estimates and would be outside standard ranges cited in environmental and sustainability literature.
In summary, the range that best reflects widely reported figures for the energy return on energy invested in industrialized food production is the '7-10' band, which captures the substantial energy costs embedded in modern food systems while not exaggerating to extremes like very low (1–2) or extremely high (100) ratios.

11:375:101:01 INTRO ENV SCIENCE Lecture #14 Quiz

With industrialized food production, for every one unit of energy put on the table in the United States, how many units of nonrenewable fossil fuel energy are required to produce it?

View Explanation

Log in for full answers

Similar Questions

With industrialized food production, for every one unit of energy put on the table in the United States, how many units of nonrenewable fossil fuel energy are required to produce it?

In a consumer society, many adults channel creativity into buying things

Economic stress and unpredictable times have resulted in a booming industry for self-help products

People born without creativity never can develop it

A product has a selling price of $20, a contribution margin ratio of 40% and fixed cost of $120,000. To make a profit of $30,000. The number of units that must be sold is: Type the number without $ and a comma. Eg: 20000

Which of the following statement regarding cost is correct:

Under the assumptions used in cost-volume-profit analysis, as the activity increases:

The CVP and break-even analysis are supported by a range of important assumptions. Which of the following is not an assumption of the CVP:

More Practical Tools for Students Powered by AI Study Helper

Homework AI Solver

Stylized AI Paper Writer

Plagiarism Checker Assistant

Citation AI Academic Writing Tool

In-Class Translation Assistant

AI Note Generator

AI Quiz Answers

Past Exam Questions from University Test Bank

Smart Practice Assistant

Adaptive Practice

Making Your Study Simpler