If you worry about how much energy it takes to bring food to your dinner plate, then beware the Norway lobster (Nephrops norvegicus). 
It takes some 300 megajoules of energy to bring 1 kilogram of this crustacean from a trawler in the North Sea to consumers in Sweden, Friederika Ziegler of the Swedish Institute for Food and Biotechnology in Göteborg said at a session this morning. (A kilogram of bread takes 18 megajoules, by comparison.) The bulk of this energy is fuel, some nine liters of diesel per kilogram of lobster caught. “This is something of a world record for food production,” Ziegler said. Lobster caught with cages are more energy efficient, she says, but the practice is more dangerous for the fishers. Read more in a report.
(Photo: Hans Hillewaert)
