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Regional Impacts of Rising Energy Prices on Feed Costs^{1 ,2,}

Iowa State University, Ames 50011

ABSTRACT

Sunlight provides the energy for the photosynthetic process of plants that converts carbon dioxide, water, nitrogen, and other elements into the sugar, starches, and proteins of food. However, sunlight is only a part of the total energy required in today's food production. Other types of energy, such as human and animal and, most important, fossil fuel also are necessary for efficient methods of food production. Modern farming uses a much larger proportion of fossil fuel energy than does traditional agriculture.

Since the Arab Oil Embargo of 1973, the U.S. energy outlook has become a major public and governmental issue. The Arab oil embargo demonstrated our dependability on imported petroleum. The nation's oil imports are continuously increasing. By the end of 1976 U.S. oil imports reached an all time high and accounted for about 50% of our daily petroleum consumption (3).

Increased concern over the U.S. energy situation was expressed by President Carter in a major address to Congress on April 20.

¹ Paper presented at the 1977 meeting of the American Society of Animal Science, Madison, WI. Journal Paper no. J-9393 of the Iowa Agricultural and Home Economics Experiment Station, Ames, IA.

² This research study was completed under a grant from the RANN Program (Research Applied to National Needs) of the National Science Foundation (GI-32990). Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the view of NSF.