sogaya

Free Energy in the Food Chain

If we consider energy in a very broad sense, we recall that the first and second laws of thermodynamics state that "the total energy content in the universe is constant, and the total entropy is continually increasing."¹ The idea that there is a set and finite amount of energy in the universe is something we may comprehend, but the fact that this energy continually moves to a less usable state is more difficult to understand.

Moreover, we find that the more advanced the species, the more free energy is required for its survival. Because 80-90% of stored energy is typically lost in the translation from prey to predator, the food that reaches our table comes at an exorbitant cost. Chemist G. Tyler Miller describes a sample food chain in this way: "Three hundred trout are required to support one man for a year. The trout, in turn, must consume 90,000 frogs, which must consume 27 million grasshoppers, which live off of 1,000 tons of grass."<sup>2

1</sup>Asimov, Isaac. "In the Game of Energy and Thermodynamics You Can't Even Break Even." Smithsonian. August 1970. p. 9
²Miller, G. Tyler, Jr. Energetics, Kinetics and Life. Belmont, California: Wadsworth, 1971. p. 46