Conventional agriculture in the United States relies heavily on fossil fuels.
Most commercial farms rely on energy-intensive equipment to perform a wide range of farm tasks, including weeding, planting, and harvesting, in order to reduce their labor needs.
In addition, the manufacturing process for farm inputs—such as pesticides and, in particular, fertilizer—requires a substantial amount of energy. A detailed literature review in 2003 broke down the total energy requirements for agriculture in advanced economies using the following categories:3• 36% for nitrogen fertilizer production
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• 27% for on-farm fuel usage
• 15% for the manufacture of agricultural machinery
• 6% for irrigation
• 6% for pesticide production
• 5% for phosphorus and potassium fertilizer production
• 4% miscellaneous
We could recoup significant benefits from reducing the largest two upstream emitters of greenhouse gases—the production of nitrogen fertilizer and on-farm fuel usage—which together account for almost two-thirds of upstream emissions.
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- City-states
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- Regional States
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