[XCSSA] ROEI: Your Tummy and a SUV in the Food Pantry, the 10x Ratio

[xcssa@xcssa.org]

On Tuesday 19 June 2007 17:52, xcssa-admin@xcssa.org wrote:
> Humm, regarding Food and Petro energy ratios  -- Return on Energy
> Investment (ROEI) for your stomach turned back 200 years ... might
> be a little hungry ...
[...]
>
> "Then I read an astonishing statistic: It takes about 10 fossil fuel
>  calories to produce each food calorie in the average American diet.
>  So if your daily food intake is 2,000 calories, then it took about
>  20,000 calories to grow that food and get it to you.

Isn't this math totally off anyway?
Real/physical calories != food Calories (upper case C).. you know this 
Charles.

More precisely, 1 food Calorie = 1,000 calories...
and since 1 calorie ~ 4.2 Joules (or 4.2 Coulomb Volts)
and 1 J = 2.7778 ×10−7 kilowatt-hour, you can now convert a bag of cheetos to 
KWh (like you read on your home meter) like this...

1 bag of cheetos --> KWh (I can't eat less than a whole bag) :


(10oz/bag-o-cheetos) * (160C/1oz) * (1000c/1C) * (4.2Joules/1c) * (2.7778x10-7 
KWh/1Joules) = 1.867 KWh / bag-o-cheetos

NOTE: 160C/oz from: http://www.calorie-count.com/calories/item/83640.html

Wow.. That's like running a 100W light bulb for almost 19 hours.  
Or a retail energy cost of around $0.12 of San Antonio power.

Interesting... but not earth shattering.

How much coal is that Charles? :)

What's a bag of cheetos "carbon footprint"? hehe..


>  Cornell University, has estimated that if all of humanity ate the
>  way Americans eat, we would exhaust all known fossil fuel reserves
>  in just seven years. "


But they don't. :)

So does that put us at the top of the "carbon food chain"?

Tweeks


Confidentiality Notice: This e-mail message (including any attached or
embedded documents) is intended for the exclusive and confidential use of the
individual or entity to which this message is addressed, and unless otherwise
expressly indicated, is confidential and privileged information of Rackspace
Managed Hosting. Any dissemination, distribution or copying of the enclosed
material is prohibited. If you receive this transmission in error, please
notify us immediately by e-mail at abuse@rackspace.com, and delete the
original message. Your cooperation is appreciated.