Brad Templeton, founder of Internet publishing pioneers ClariNet Communications Corp., recently posted to deas.4brad.com/holy-cow-walking-consumes-more-gasoline-driving”>”Holy cow: Walking consumes more gasoline than driving!” — elucidates the high volume of petroleum use in U.S. agriculture and animal husbandry toward quantifying an average walking mpg of about “>42 miles per gas-gallon of fossil fuel,” Templeton writes, based on petroleum use in agriculture. If you set as your benchmark the amount of petroleum used in beef, much higher per calorie than in most non-animal ag products, you’re walking only about 10 mpg.

As Templeton’s quick to point out, you can do better with most cars (and some trucks) than that. Now, before you go and decide you’ll never walk again, Templeton notes, “>If you come out of it thinking it’s telling you to drive rather than get some exercise, you didn’t read it!” Get over to his blog and read the analysis yourself blogger-post-footer”>Channel 19 is the blog version of the column of the same name featured in Overdrive: The Voice of the American Trucker. Todd Dills (tdills@rrpub.com) is its author.