Less Food and Less Energy for a Better America

Over at Foreign Policy, Vaclav Smil has penned a piece entitled A Hummer in Every Driveway in which he notes:

The problems that ail the U.S. economy and American society are one and the same: Both consume too much and refuse to make badly needed changes... Even after throwing away some 40 percent of its abundant food supply, the United States still has the industrialized world’s most overweight population. America similarly produces more energy per capita than any other major rich economy — so much so that if the United States were to consume that energy at a rate comparable to Germany or France, it would be a massive energy exporter. Instead, America imports more than 25 percent of its energy, paying more than $2 trillion for the privilege over the past decade — and still ends up with little to show for it. The United States now faces the choice of curbing its energy appetite with deliberation, commitment, and foresight, or waiting for the unraveling economy to put it on a painful crash diet.

Read the whole thing here.

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