Energy and Agriculture

Excerpts from the Introduction: Today, the average citizen in the United States uses over two hundred times as much energy as his ancestors. Man has explored, excavated, and exhausted many resources of the earth and currently is dependent upon a dwindling foreign oil supply. Reliance on this form of energy cannot continue for the beginning of the end of the fossil-fuel age is at hand. In particular, our system of food production faces very serious problems for our farms are dependent upon an extensive use of fossil fuels to power the machines used for planting, spraying, fertilizing, and harvesting of crops. T.S. Eliot once said that "Mankind cannot bear very much reality" yet it is abundantly clear that the future of the United States may well depend upon how well we effectively develop new attitudes and life-styles inclusive of alternative sources of energy such as solar, wind, and ocean power as well as other energy sources not yet discovered. This double issue brings together five papers, news, legislation, and other items relating to the problems of energy in agriculture as well as a general acquisition section.