OIL FOR SUPPER

Alan C. Nixon is, like his namesake Richard, a past president; not of the US, but of the American Chemical Society. Writing in a just published issue of Science, he suggests that the world food shortage be alleviated by converting petroleum directly into food without the intermediate steps of planting, fertilizing and reaping.

The technology of producing proteins and fats directly from petroleum already exists (see our April issue), though more research and development is needed. Nixon suggests that such a project should supplement the stockpiling of food, the food refineries being shut down in a standby condition during plentiful years. This, he writes, is much cheaper than stockpiling surplus food. He proposes that the cost of such an operation be paid by the nations that profit most from the production and utilization of petroleum.

The present production of food, claims Nixon (not quite accurately), consumes almost as much energy in the form of petroleum as it produces food. The total amount of food energy needed to support the world population is not much more than 10% of total world petroleum production. Thus, conversion of a mere 0.5% of this production into food directly would constitute an energetically sensible way off alleviating famines.