Agricultural practices have evolved significantly over the centuries. Initially consisting of simple pastoral management and itinerant cultivation, these methods have been substantially modified in the name of "progress", especially in the United States and other industrialized countries. Through this progression energy inputs and outputs have been drastically altered. The industrialized food system as we know it today is much more complex than the simple agricultural practices used thousands of years ago. Today, the industrialized agricultural system depends on extraordinary amounts of fossil fuel inputs to maintain its complexity. Energy is needed to grow, process, package, distribute, prepare and dispose of food. With the rising cost of these fuels and the scarcity of these forms of non-renewable energy, we are preparing for exorbitant food prices and potentially catastrophic environmental degradation due to the industrial food system. The Green Revolution of the 1950s and 1960s is generally attributed to the development of industrial agriculture. Over the course of a few decades, grain production has increased by more than 250% [1], however Green Revolution techniques rely heavily on chemical fertilizers and pesticides, which must be developed from fossil fuels, making agriculture increasingly more dependent on petroleum products. While some argue that the Green Revolution has averted hunger for more than a billion people, others suggest that food security has actually declined for many people in underdeveloped nations as their farmland has been converted for animal feed production. livestock. With the advent of the Green Revolution came the need for significant amounts of energy to support agricultural products...... middle of paper ......n provide economic benefits to the community and reduce the energy consumption needed to the transport of these food products. Reducing fertilizers can minimize energy demands while mitigating the effects of toxic runoff resulting from their use. Works Cited1. Constraints on the Expansion of Global Food Supply, Kindell, Henry H. and Pimentel, David. Ambi vol. 23 no. 3, May 1994. Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.2. http://www.epa.gov/metano/3. http://www.epa.gov/outreach/pdfs/Manthrope-and-Nitrous-Oxide-Emissions-From-Natural-Sources.pdf4. Food, territory, population and US economy, Pimentel, David and Giampietro, Mario. Carrying Capacity Network, 11/21/1994. http://www.dieoff.com/page55.htm5. http://www.epa.gov/outreach/sources.html6. http://www.infra.kth.se/fms/pdf/energyuse.pdf7. http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/wuir.html