RE: [pf] Fork in the evolution road

by David A

21 December 2000 18:09 UTC

Yes. It takes 1,000 tons of water to produce a ton of grain, but 15,000 
tons of water to produce a ton of beef. 

On a per calorie basis, a calorie of grain takes about 1.1 pounds, and a 
calorie of beef around 12 pounds. 

I haven't double-checked this calculation, but I get that 33% of US 
water goes to raising beef. (26.4 B lbs of beef were raised in the US in 
1999.) 

If all that water went to grain production, the US could grow an 
additional 3,500 calories per US citizen per day. This is enough to 
adequately feed (2500 cal/day, say), each day, about 380 million people 
around the world.

The US produces around 25% of the world's beef production, so replacing 
all worldwide beef with grain would adequately 1.5B people. Eliminate 
chickens and pork and you'd get even more.

But the trouble is, as countries develop they seem to want to increase 
the amount of meat they eat, not lessen it.

David


Stan  King wrote:
> 
> --- David A <davidnh@visto.com> wrote: 
> > But if the land for cultivation remains the same (or
> > decreases slightly 
> > due to population pressures), and the population
> > increases by another 3 
> > billion by 2050 (even the UN's low-fertility
> > scenario has it increasing 
> > by 1.3B over that time), then food productivity has
> > to increase or some 
> > people, somewhere, will have to eat less.
> > 
> > David
> 
> We could feed more people with existing food
> productivity if we changed our diets to be more
> plant-based. It takes something like 10 pounds of
> grain to make one pound of meat. While much of the
> world is eating a plant-based diet if even a small
> percentage of first world people started shifted their
> diets in that direction we would free up more food
> (and water).  I'm not suggesting this would be easy
> given our cultural proclivity toward animal flesh but
> it is another scenario worth keeping in mind.
> 
> Peace,
> 
> Stan