It's strange to think of oil and food as interlinked, and images of barrels of crude seem incongruous with thoughts of ripe vegetables, and steaks on the grill; but the reality of our current food production system means that oil and food are completely interlinked. Our contemporary agro business models are seriously reliant on abundant and cheap oil to continue supplying the quantities and varieties of products we demand on the shelf year round.

When we think of personal environmental activism, we most often consider how we can reduce our energy consumption through increasing the efficiency of our cars and of our homes, but we rarely consider the environmental impact of the foods that we eat.

A recent Swedish study examining tomato ketchup illustrates part of the problem, and it was reported that the ingredients and packaging needed to produce a single bottle of Swedish ketchup had been trucked and re trucked from around Europe more than 50 times! The more processed the foods, the farther from field to table, and the greater the ecological impact

Organic food tastes better, but it's also more expensive, and although growing in popularity, organic produce still represents only a small fraction of annual globally consumed produce. Organic food, devoid of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, tastes better, is almost certainly healthier for you, and also demands far less energy input per unit of food produced. Most large scale farms rely on oil based nitrogen fertilizers to ensure annual production on a factory scale. Unfortunately, 1 kg of fertilizer requires almost 1 kg of oil to produce, and the resultant quantity of oil dumped into our farmer's fields each year is astronomical.

With continuing debate about peak oil and the future of sustainable agriculture, changes may eventually become necessary, if only as the increasing costs of oil renders current production methods too costly to sell. But for now, if you're looking to further reduce your footprint on the planet, buy local food and spare that tomato a cross continental diesel belching truck ride, eat organically and eat foods as close to their natural state as is possible.

Fortunately, responsible ecological grocery shopping will also make your cooking better and your meals more healthful.

It comes back to the same old mantra…eat locally, eat in season and support local farmers working the fields in sustainable ways. It may cost a bit more, but you'll enjoy it more, you'll be acting ecologically responsibly, and you'll avoid the questionable consumption of a legion of chemicals as used in mass agro business farming.