4 ms·

It's hard to take any food shortage articles seriously when we feed >40% of the calories we grow to cattle alone. Sure, more people might go hungry because we

It's hard to take any food shortage articles seriously when we feed >40% of the calories we grow to cattle alone. Sure, more people might go hungry because we do not allocate food well. But we are so far from actually running out of calories that the idea is ridiculous.

dsrees 4y ago
40% of corn grown goes to produce ethanol. [1] The silage by product is then sent to feed cattle. [1] https://civileats.com/2022/02/14/how-corn-ethanol-for-biofuel-fueled-climate-change/ https://civileats.com/2022/02/14/how-corn-ethanol-for-biofue...
redisman 4y ago
Sure but thinking that the American people don’t implode if the stores are empty and you’re sent a bag of corn every month for your calories is also not realistic.
- onlyrealcuzzo 4y ago
  You can grow other calories on the land you're growing corn for ethenol and livestock feed.
  - pixl97 4y ago
    With the massive efficiency of corn its actually kinda hard to do that to the level you expect. Corn is very effective at turning space into starch.
    - imtringued 4y ago
      What massive efficiency? You're feeding it to animals. 80% of the calories are immediately pooped out.
      - onlyrealcuzzo 4y ago
        Which is why you could just feed it to people instead - or grow something else. Solar panels destroy corn in terms of converting solar power to energy. Ethanol is geopolitical and special interests, definitely not efficient.
Throwawayaerlei 4y ago
One way of looking at the fodder for cattle is that the human palatable parts of it are reserves. We can "downshift," downsize our herds and redirect that without redisman's "send you a bag of corn every month" (plus calcium hydroxide for nixtamalization) extreme which more belongs to something like a post-nuclear war scenario. The big problem is going to be the places that don't have reserves of most anything including money, like the parts of the Middle East and thereabouts that normally get their wheat from Russia and the Ukraine, the latter long called "the breadbasket of the world."

dsrees 4y ago

40% of corn grown goes to produce ethanol. [1] The silage by product is then sent to feed cattle. [1] https://civileats.com/2022/02/14/how-corn-ethanol-for-biofuel-fueled-climate-change/ https://civileats.com/2022/02/14/how-corn-ethanol-for-biofue...

redisman 4y ago

Sure but thinking that the American people don’t implode if the stores are empty and you’re sent a bag of corn every month for your calories is also not realistic.

onlyrealcuzzo 4y ago
You can grow other calories on the land you're growing corn for ethenol and livestock feed.
- pixl97 4y ago
  With the massive efficiency of corn its actually kinda hard to do that to the level you expect. Corn is very effective at turning space into starch.
  - imtringued 4y ago
    What massive efficiency? You're feeding it to animals. 80% of the calories are immediately pooped out.
    - onlyrealcuzzo 4y ago
      Which is why you could just feed it to people instead - or grow something else. Solar panels destroy corn in terms of converting solar power to energy. Ethanol is geopolitical and special interests, definitely not efficient.

Throwawayaerlei 4y ago

One way of looking at the fodder for cattle is that the human palatable parts of it are reserves. We can "downshift," downsize our herds and redirect that without redisman's "send you a bag of corn every month" (plus calcium hydroxide for nixtamalization) extreme which more belongs to something like a post-nuclear war scenario. The big problem is going to be the places that don't have reserves of most anything including money, like the parts of the Middle East and thereabouts that normally get their wheat from Russia and the Ukraine, the latter long called "the breadbasket of the world."