800 MPG Is Still Pretty Good, Right?
I got inspired by the Bicycle MPG article on How Things Work (noted here), did a little investigating and tinkering, and built a Bicycle MPG Calculator. So far, my calculator is not as optimistic as theirs, but the Calorie-per-hour calculations are inside the ranges of several charts I found online, so I’ll say good’nuff’er gubmint work.
It should point out that this doesn’t factor for fuel used to produce the food you would use to get those calories, but plenty of folks have already taken that on. I’d be interested to see a more thorough exploration of that topic that weighs in the effectiveness of the food you eat.
For example, beef takes more fuel and water to produce than lettuce and beans, but isn’t there some efficiency advantage as far as nutrients-per-calorie in going a step up the food chain? And if it’s true that meat delivers a denser package of certain nutrients, can pastured chickens or farmed Tilapia do it for less energy?
Just as importantly, how much “efficiency” are we getting in return for being completely inhumane, torturing, fucked assholes to those animals while they’re doing us the favor of growing that meat on their bones for us? And what’s the additional energy costs of doing massive cleanup operations on the toxic waste dumps that industrial feedlots create?
Other folks have pointed out that eating locally will also increase that bottom-line efficiency, as the fuel for transportinatin’ your food is also a factor. That asparagus from Whole Foods might take a lot less fossil fuel to produce than a steak, but not if it’s been flown here from Argentina. Don’t get me wrong, I know it’s wrong to eat asparagus in the winter, and knowing that, I don’t want to be right. But getting seasonal produce from farmer’s markets does makes that link in the fuel consumption chain a lot smaller.
Lotsa questions! I have no answers to them, but enjoy the calculator, and maybe get happy about how incredibly bad-ass efficient you are on a bike. You’re one hell of a motor, that’s right.
Tags: bicycling, blawg stuff, energy independence, food production
