How many pounds of grain does it take to raise 1 pound of beef?

Question

How many pounds of grain are taken away from the world market and food supply to supplement luxury foods like beef in the United States? From birth of calf, through life and to slaughter. Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Very much.

Well. To produce lets say 1KG of GOOD meat, no special things added such as growing chemicals and so on, it takes about 10KG grain.

If people would stop eating meat there would be much more food and probably no one would need to starve.

Answer 2

The poster on my wall says to produce one pound of hamburger:

12 pounds of grain

15 square feet of rain-forest

2500 gallons of water

More info can be found at EarthSave

Answer 3

Regardless of the motives in answering a question, I find the practice of saying "YUCK! Meat" childish and disrespectful of an animal raised for meat.

The Native Americans always thanked the game they ate for being allowed to be killed by them.  As a cook and a meat eater I feel that I have an obligation to the animals that I prepare to be made to best of my ability in part out of respect for them.  I find things like frozen burgers offensive since it is a poor fate for the food that cows provide.

Answer 4

It takes 7 pounds of grain just to raise 1 pound of (*yuck*) beef.

Answer 5

It takes about 5 kg of grain to make one kg of beef, so meat uses 5 times as much grain as eating grain directly does. 5 kg is roughly 11 pounds.

Answer 6

Feeding cows grain is unnecessary.  If it went for all the subsidies on grains it would be a much rarer practice limited to very high end beef.  Feeding them hay before slaughter instead of grain greatly reduces their e-coli levels making the beef safer for modern processing.

Answer 7

very few.. most grain grown for animal feed is  not fit for human consumption so it is not taken from the food supply..

also, outside the US and other western countries, cattle are mostly free grazers