The agriculture and food processing industries consist of agricultural products, agricultural services, and food products (food processing). Details about agricultures economic impact on Oregon and employment indicates that agricultural products industry has been experiencing steady growth. The Oregon food processing industry alone accounts for over for over 25,000 employees in 1998. The agricultural industry is second only to the pulp and paper industry in total regional energy use. Eight percent of the electricity used in the Northwest was for food processing in 1998. Food processing also used about 20 percent of the regions natural gas not used for power plants. Energy use in agriculture and food processing is nearly equally split between transportation and food processing/storage.
The U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Industrial technologies helps industry research and demonstrate leading edge or emerging technologies. The following technologies are likely to become commercially available in the next year or two and will yield energy savings, waste reduction or productivity benefits for this industry.
