BICENTENNIAL ENERGY

There are two main reasons for this anomaly. The first settlers found a continent covered with virgin forest and fuel wood available for the cutting, resulting in a level of energy consumption far above other societies of the time. On the other hand, the widespread replacement of work animals by heat engines in the latter l9th century vastly increased output without much change in per capita fuel input. In 1850, per capita consumption stood at about 140 million BTU (mostly fuel wood and work animal feed); by 1960, it had only grown to 220 MBTU (mostly coal, gas and oil). [Source: Fisher, Energy crises in perspective, Wiley, 1974.]

During that time, the share of agriculture dwindled to 5% in population, and to 13% in energy consumption. Yet agriculture, unlike electric toothbrushes and solar-powered toilets, remains a key energy issue. Its modern methods, from pesticides to fertilizers, are under attack by much the same crowd that attacks nuclear power, perhaps for the same reason: Those methods bring affluence to everybody, not just to a select set of berserk intellectuals.

One of America's leading scientists to stand up to environmentalist extremism in agriculture and other life sciences is Prof. R.H. White-Stevens of Rutgers University. "Agriculture, America's brightest star," he says, "outshines its quibbling critics." (A short position paper by that title obtainable free from C.E.B., Bow 7732, Louisville, KY 40207.) In a recently released casette tape, he eloquently exposes the true and the sham needs of the environment. The very week that the government prohibited DES for cattle, he reports, they approved the "morning-after pill ;" but to get the same amount of DES as from one pill, you would have to consume 4 tons of raw beef every day for 70 years. (Tape no.418, S9.95 from Audio-Forum, 901 North Washington, Alexandria VA 22314.)