"What has this to do with the price of spuds"

A maths lecturer I once had used that to say that to me when I gave answers that lost sight of the original question he asked. That comment sprang to mind this week when I heard that the well known generally conservative financial consultants Goldman Sachs warned that oil prices might enter a ‘super spike’ period driving oil toward $105 a barrel. Well to put it in a nutshell it has everything to do with the price of spuds. The systems that produce the world's food supply are heavily dependent on fossil fuels. Vast amounts of oil and gas are used as raw materials and energy in the manufacture of fertilisers and pesticides, and as cheap and readily available energy at all stages of food production; from planting, irrigation, feeding and harvesting, through to processing, distribution and packaging. In addition, fossil fuels are essential in the construction and the repair of equipment and infrastructure needed to facilitate this industry, including farm machinery, processing facilities, storage, ships, trucks and roads. The industrial food supply system is one of the biggest consumers of fossil fuels and one of the greatest producers of greenhouse gasses.