Global energy consumption in agriculture between 1970 and 2012. Source: authors’ own editing based on the database of the FAO (FAO 2020c). Intensive agricultural and food systems have led to a boost in energy consumption globally. Gas-diesel oil consumption in agriculture has increased 4.4 times compared to 1970, while growth in electricity consumption has exceeded the 1970 level by 9.6 times. In some cases, an extreme growth in consumption has been recorded. For example, coal consumption was more than 34 times higher in 2018 compared to 1979 (an increase from 23 thousand terajoules to 824 thousand terajoules).