5 ms·

I generally agree with you but FWIW most of the corn (90%+) grown in the US goes into animal feed, e.g. for cows. Which is of course its own little tragedy, co

by ip26 8y ago

I generally agree with you but FWIW most of the corn (90%+) grown in the US goes into animal feed, e.g. for cows. Which is of course its own little tragedy, considering you get 1 calorie of cow for every 12 calories of corn.

ceejayoz 8y ago
FWIW, that (sorta) still counts as "comes from corn".
GlenTheMachine 8y ago
That's a good point, thanks.
opencl 8y ago
This was true several decades ago, but now about 1/3 of it used to manufacture ethanol due to the US transition to gasoline having 10% ethanol content. It is still very much true that far more of it goes to animal feed than food for humans though. https://afdc.energy.gov/data/10339 https://afdc.energy.gov/data/10339
- dinglejungle 8y ago
  Note that a byproduct of ethanol production is distillers grains[1] which are used as an animal feed. Also worth noting that the percentage of corn used for direct human consumption has stayed at around 10-20% before, during, and after the ramp up in ethanol production: Ethanol + animal feed chart: https://i.imgur.com/1QqPTje.png https://i.imgur.com/1QqPTje.png Ethanol production chart: https://i.imgur.com/3wwzkIi.png https://i.imgur.com/3wwzkIi.png [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distillers_grains https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distillers_grains
technotony 8y ago
Maybe 1 calorie of cow per 12 of corn, but dairy cows are much more efficient than that: Cow eats 40.57 MCAl/day [1] Produces 45.5 KGS of milk [1] Milk 610 kcal/liter Energy of cows milk per day 27.755 MCAL Cow milk efficiency 68% This feels high as a gut reaction, maybe calculation is missing energy to grow the cow. Still it shows how efficient they are! Would love a source for your cow meat efficiency numbers, I'm currently exploring efficiency of fermentation methods to produce meat alternatives and that would be a helpful data point. Source: [1] http://www.milkproduction.com/Library/Scientific-articles/Nutrition/Energy/ http://www.milkproduction.com/Library/Scientific-articles/Nu...
- Falling3 8y ago
  Don't underestimate the contribution of the "energy to grow the cow". Dairy cows don't start producing until they're 2 years old and are typically only kept around until age 5 or 6. That's a full third (or more) of their lives with no output whatsoever.
- sonnyblarney 8y ago
  My god that's brilliant. Cows more efficient than the combustion engine?

by ip26 8y ago

ceejayoz 8y ago

FWIW, that (sorta) still counts as "comes from corn".

GlenTheMachine 8y ago

That's a good point, thanks.

opencl 8y ago

This was true several decades ago, but now about 1/3 of it used to manufacture ethanol due to the US transition to gasoline having 10% ethanol content. It is still very much true that far more of it goes to animal feed than food for humans though. https://afdc.energy.gov/data/10339 https://afdc.energy.gov/data/10339

dinglejungle 8y ago
Note that a byproduct of ethanol production is distillers grains[1] which are used as an animal feed. Also worth noting that the percentage of corn used for direct human consumption has stayed at around 10-20% before, during, and after the ramp up in ethanol production: Ethanol + animal feed chart: https://i.imgur.com/1QqPTje.png https://i.imgur.com/1QqPTje.png Ethanol production chart: https://i.imgur.com/3wwzkIi.png https://i.imgur.com/3wwzkIi.png [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distillers_grains https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distillers_grains

technotony 8y ago

Maybe 1 calorie of cow per 12 of corn, but dairy cows are much more efficient than that: Cow eats 40.57 MCAl/day [1] Produces 45.5 KGS of milk [1] Milk 610 kcal/liter Energy of cows milk per day 27.755 MCAL Cow milk efficiency 68% This feels high as a gut reaction, maybe calculation is missing energy to grow the cow. Still it shows how efficient they are! Would love a source for your cow meat efficiency numbers, I'm currently exploring efficiency of fermentation methods to produce meat alternatives and that would be a helpful data point. Source: [1] http://www.milkproduction.com/Library/Scientific-articles/Nutrition/Energy/ http://www.milkproduction.com/Library/Scientific-articles/Nu...

Falling3 8y ago
Don't underestimate the contribution of the "energy to grow the cow". Dairy cows don't start producing until they're 2 years old and are typically only kept around until age 5 or 6. That's a full third (or more) of their lives with no output whatsoever.
sonnyblarney 8y ago
My god that's brilliant. Cows more efficient than the combustion engine?