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First, this is an incorrect comparison: chickens eating corn VS humans eating wheat bread. Humans can very much eat corn as well. Second, you have to consider

First, this is an incorrect comparison: chickens eating corn VS humans eating wheat bread. Humans can very much eat corn as well. Second, you have to consider the conversion rate for each nutrients including calories and proteins and chickens are much less efficient than that. Also, the environmental impact needs to account for water usage, pollution from the plant and animal farming and energy usage. Please provide evidence sources if you want to claim otherwise.

saalweachter 4y ago
> First, this is an incorrect comparison: chickens eating corn VS humans eating wheat bread. Humans can very much eat corn as well. I mean, it compares what it compares. From a land usage and calorie perspective chicken is approximately equivalent to wheat. > Also, the environmental impact needs to account for water usage, pollution from the plant and animal farming and energy usage. Yes, I am not accounting for those. The first reason is that I am lazy, and this is a comment on the internet; the second reason is that once you are trying to optimize for land usage, water usage, energy usage, fertilizer usage, human labor, capital costs, run-off pollution, CO2, and everything else, you now need to decide how to weight each factor. Rice produces almost 3 times as many calories per acre as wheat, but uses more than 3 times as much water (449 gallons / lb vs 132). Which is better? > Second, you have to consider the conversion rate for each nutrients including calories and proteins and chickens are much less efficient than that. This is actually where chicken excels. I should really be comparing chicken to soy, not wheat, because soy is a great source of complete protein. If you plant 3 acres of soybeans, you'll get 18 million calories worth of soybeans. If you plant 2 acres of corn and 1 acre of soybeans, you'll get 36 million calories of grains, and if you feed them to chickens, you'll get 12 million calories of chicken. On a calories-per-acre basis, soy is beating chicken 3:2. But soy only gives you about 0.1 grams of protein per calorie, while chicken gives you more like 0.2 grams of protein per calorie. So your 3 acres of soybeans give you 1.8 million grams of protein, while your 3 acres of corn+soy->chickens give you 2.4 million grams of protein. So chickens beat soy on protein per acre by 4:3. > Please provide evidence sources if you want to claim otherwise. I've stated all the numbers I'm using; if there's one you want to call bullshit on in particular let me know.

saalweachter 4y ago

> First, this is an incorrect comparison: chickens eating corn VS humans eating wheat bread. Humans can very much eat corn as well. I mean, it compares what it compares. From a land usage and calorie perspective chicken is approximately equivalent to wheat. > Also, the environmental impact needs to account for water usage, pollution from the plant and animal farming and energy usage. Yes, I am not accounting for those. The first reason is that I am lazy, and this is a comment on the internet; the second reason is that once you are trying to optimize for land usage, water usage, energy usage, fertilizer usage, human labor, capital costs, run-off pollution, CO2, and everything else, you now need to decide how to weight each factor. Rice produces almost 3 times as many calories per acre as wheat, but uses more than 3 times as much water (449 gallons / lb vs 132). Which is better? > Second, you have to consider the conversion rate for each nutrients including calories and proteins and chickens are much less efficient than that. This is actually where chicken excels. I should really be comparing chicken to soy, not wheat, because soy is a great source of complete protein. If you plant 3 acres of soybeans, you'll get 18 million calories worth of soybeans. If you plant 2 acres of corn and 1 acre of soybeans, you'll get 36 million calories of grains, and if you feed them to chickens, you'll get 12 million calories of chicken. On a calories-per-acre basis, soy is beating chicken 3:2. But soy only gives you about 0.1 grams of protein per calorie, while chicken gives you more like 0.2 grams of protein per calorie. So your 3 acres of soybeans give you 1.8 million grams of protein, while your 3 acres of corn+soy->chickens give you 2.4 million grams of protein. So chickens beat soy on protein per acre by 4:3. > Please provide evidence sources if you want to claim otherwise. I've stated all the numbers I'm using; if there's one you want to call bullshit on in particular let me know.