What is the comparative resource use for food production and meat production?

Question

It has been said that producing meat requires several times the natural resources than what is needed to produce foodgrains and vegetables.

Can anyone tell me the exact details and also refer to websites which give scientific information about the facts relating to this question?

Answer 1

engineers are currently seeking methods to grow real meat invitro. I hope it don't take too long. This would solve many of the problems associated with animal slavery. Ruminants are predicted to be destroyed because of a genetic bomb .That will likely be an incentive to develop this technology faster.

Answer 2

From notes and lectures over the years, if memory serves me correctly, the average production for a given unit of land is 7 to 1 vegetable/ plant production to meat animal production. It varies as was mentioned depending on the crop and form of production. It is good that the topic has reached more people with the passing of time, but given the knowledge, we are slow to take action. It requires a huge change in our very comfortable way of life, but without that change our comfort will surely not be guaranteed and the results of inaction will be far worse and much farther reaching. For those that did not know and are just learning, this is a great time to embrace change and do what needs to be done. For those that knew and deceived themselves and others, it's a "calling on the carpet". Whether you believe in God, or Gaia, or just care about the world, we as people are responsible for our planet and all on it, to care for and manage it with compassion and a responsibility that is more than just to ourselves. Whether this is a class assignment or just a personal exercise in life and understanding it, below are a few links to help. I admit to being biased, but truth is found where ever it may be in what ever form it takes.

Answer 3

an acre of cereal produces five times more protein than an acre devoted to meat production; legumes (beans, peas, lentils) can produce 10 times more protein; leafy vegetables 15 times more protein.

Water requirements for meat protein production are higher than for the production of vegetable protein. Each 500gms of steak from feedlot-raised steers uses over 11,000litres of water.

On average, the production of meat costs up to 14,7 times more energy than that of vegetable food. One kilo veal compares to 100 kilo potatoes, as for the amount of energy.

Answer 4

Texas R is exactly right. The numbers and statistics look real good when you are talking about prime agriculture land. The facts are that most beef cattle are raised on land that is fit only for grass or forests, that support wildlife. If it was put into crops the erosion would be so bad that the land would be useless in one or two years. The pollution in streams and rivers with soil and nutrients applied to the land would increase greatly. Doing away with meat is not going to save the world, it would just get rid of a good source of food and protein that we need. The statistics that you are being shown is like saying that if you stood with one foot in a tub of ice-water and one foot in a tub of boiling water, on the average you would be comfortable. Look at all sides of a question before drawing a conclusion. People who wish to be vegetarians, by all means, should do so. It is their right, but to advocate doing away with livestock production is just a one sided view of things.

http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=1071-10...

Answer 5

We can't eat grass like cows do so the numbers are skewed a bit.

It is only the food crops that humans can eat that should be calculated in this, and those crops would be mostly corn, soya beans and grains.

It is also true that we do not produce our proteins from the same vegetable sources as animals can.

When you start looking at the types of plants needed to keep a human alive the production numbers change drastically.

Take a look at the acreages needed to produce the more expensive but required parts of the vegetarian diet.

You can not count the protein content of plants that you can not eat but your livestock can, or foods that you can eat but your livestock can't.

Note that even in places where food is very scarce they still raise livestock on what the people can not eat themselves.

For example the raising of grass eating ducks and carp in the same ponds in China.

They let the ducks graze on grass and the duck p**p feeds the carp.

Then the carp become food for the people.

Answer 6

This statement has been said but it fails to take into effect soil type differences.  An acre of prime land will produce 15-60 bushels of soybeans per acre or 150 to 200 bushels of corn.  Unfortunately, that is only the prime land which makes up much less than 40% of the total acreage across the USA.  The remaining land will not produce an economical yield to other grain or legume crops.  This land is allocated to either timber or grassland.  This is where beef animals spend the majority of their lives.  Not on prime farm land, but on the land that will not produce any other economically viable crop besides grass or timber.

There are several acres of "marginal" crop land that is plowed and planted when commodity prices are high then converted back into grassland when commodity prices are low.

This grassland is also used by multiple wildlife species and is critical to their survival.  Cropland, generally, is not supportive of wildlife (go look up the ducks unlimited site about this particular issue).