Many of you may have read the article called "The Oil We Eat" from the February 2004 issues of Harper's Magazine. In that piece, Richard Manning examined the evolution of the human food chain, ending with the Green Revolution which ultimately freed vast amounts of the population (especially in first world countries) from having to grow their own food. The upshot of the Green Revolution, along with advances in storing and transporting food, is that we now expend approximately 7-10 calories of fossil fuels for each food calories that is generated.

Today, the San Francisco Chronicle has a human interest piece called "The oil in your oatmeal: A lot of fossil fuel goes into producing, packaging and shipping our breakfast" that essentially distills the end of the Harper's article into a concise recounting of the amount of fossil fuel energy that goes into making "a bowl of imported McCann's Irish oatmeal topped with Cascadian Farms organic frozen raspberries, and a cup of Peet's Fair Trade Blend coffee."