Energy and Water Use in Arizona Agriculture

1. Energy and Water Use in Arizona Agriculture Thomas L. Acker, Chelsea Atwater Edana French, Mark Glauth, And Dean Howard Smith

2. Why This Study? • Increasing energy and water concerns in Arizona are the driving forces to improve the efficiency of agricultural production within the state. • The analysis is “from seed to the edge of the field.”

3. The Goal Of The Research Project • Identify and quantify all water and direct fossil fuel-based energy uses from • The production of the initial seed, • Through the treatments of the soil • Various chemical introductions, • All the way until the crop is harvested and loaded for transportation.

4. Importance to Arizona Farming • Real energy costs have been increasing in recent years and are likely to continue to do so in the foreseeable future. • The extended draught combined with unprecedented population growth in Arizona is causing increasing concerns about water management.

5. Existing Ag Sector • Approximately 900,000 acres • A variety of fruits, vegetables, grains, hay and cotton • Approximately 4.9 million acre feet of water • Energy used has an approximate high range of 3.6x1013 BTU or roughly 1,204 MW.

6. How Much Energy is That? • Equivalent of about 2 Cholla Power plants operating at full capacity for one year. • Alternatively this is the energy in 290,000,000 gallons of gasoline • Around 38,652 tanker trucks of gasoline. • Produces 536,000 TONS of CO2

7. The Process • List the various operations • Machine hours per operation • Number of operations • Some are shared so not all integers • Diesel consumption per hour • Varies as different machines are used • No hand or contract operations • Diesel/acre = Machine hours/acre*Times*Diesel/hours.

8. Cabbage as an Exemplar

10. Irrigation • Between 25 acre inches or 2.08 acre feet and 42 acre inches or 3.5 acre feet. • 123.01 BTU/cubic foot of water • 139,000 BTU/gallon diesel

11. Chemicals • Estimates for the amount of each chemical types and the amount of coverage were determined. • Varies by crop • Since the former study used pounds per acre and the latter study used MJ/kg, a series of conversions were necessary to determine the energy used per acre.

13. Eat Your Cabbage • Sturdy, abundant and inexpensive, cabbage is a longstanding dietary staple throughout the world and is so widely cultivated and stores so well that it is available throughout the year.

14. Converting into diesel equivalents the high and low range for the embodied fossil fuels in the various chemicals is shown in Table 4.

15. Seeds • A high estimate for the required seeds per acre is 156,000 (Cabbage Production in California) and a low value from the Arizona crop budget is 90,000. • An average embodied energy value is 20.64 MJ/kg of seeds. • An estimate for the amount of cabbage seeds per pound is 126,000. • A Units Nightmare!

17. 139,000 btu/gallon 3.97 Kcal/btu Total Operations for Cabbage Seafood Cabbage Pancakes2 cups of all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon of baking powder 1 teaspoon of salt 1 cup of vegetable broth or Dashi2 cups of shredded white cabbage 1 Egg 2 cups of Master Seafood Mixture Salt, to taste Freshly-ground white pepper Canola oil,  for cooking 1/4 cup of Oyster sauce 1/2 cup of Bonito Flakes, for garnish

18. Energy Needed to Produce Cabbage Cabbage Cassarole Each Servings:  1/2 cupExchanges 1 Vegetable 1/2 meat Chol 67 mg Calories 58 Carbo 5 gm Protein 5 gm Fat 2 gm Fiber Tr. Sodium 342 mg

19. A Simple Energy Budget • The estimated amount of embodied fossil fuel in each head of cabbage grown in Arizona is between 9,054 and 12,061 kilocalories. • A meaningful comparison for these values is the USDA standard of 2,000 Kcal of food per person per day! • As such the amount of energy needed to keep the typical American going for 6 days as food intake is the same as the energy necessary to produce a single head of cabbage

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21. Other Crops

22. Operations Only • Broccoli 8,059 Kcal/head • Honeydew 6,155 Kcal/melon • Remember a calorie is the amount of energy needed to heat 1 gram of water. • You weigh a lot more than 1 gram, so we measure food in Kilocalories or Kcal.

23. High Estimates for Diesel

24. Low Estimates for Diesel

25. Total Diesel Consumption • You are what you eat. • You are Oil! • Honeydew 15,000 -20,400 Kcal per melon • Leaf Lettuce Garnish 7-9,000 Kcal/head

26. Water Use Per Unit

27. Water Use Totals

28. Variations in Estimates

29. Water Use • High values are more likely correct for arid Arizona. • 1 bunch spinach avg. = 25 gallons • 400 glasses of water

30. Servings

31. Calculations • Average weight= total weight/sample size • Weight/unit = average weight*16 • Useable/unit=weight/unit *(1- refuse%) • Serving/unit= (useable/unit)/ serving size

32. A Day Shopping 9/29/07

33. Energy Used in Production

34. Water Used in Production

35. Efficiency • Kcal of production energy/Kcal of food energy • Gallons of water/Kcal of food energy • 8 ounce glasses

36. Maybe President Bush Was Correct! • No Broccoli • 350 Kcal for each Kcal of food energy • 25 glasses of water for each Kcal of food • Next Project: Nutritional efficiency

37. “From Seed To Edge Of The Field.” • Does not include • Human labor • Washing • Refrigerating • Packaging • Transporting • Storing • Cooking

38. Making Agriculture Better Farmers are people We value the world in which we work and live. We support our local schools, and donate generously to a number of charitable organizations in our community and throughout our industry.We respect and value the environment in which we grow our products. All of our fresh vegetable products are natural, containing no genetically modified organisms.