Couple of things
You're wrong about a lot and in fairy land about some of the rest (halving the population!) but these two things are worth talking about:

A cow is a good way of turning plants into protein. That 1kg of beef is far more nutritious than 10kg of grain. It's not a 10% conversion ratio, it's more akin to a process of distillation. You wouldn't solve world hunger by eating grain, you'd end up with severe malnutrition.

I mostly agree with you on intensive farming, particularly the bit about excluding farmers from developing countries. You could, as I have, write to your MP & MEP and lobby for the end of CAP and the gradual introduction of free trade, at the very least the removal of tarifs on foodstuffs imported from Africa.

Right enough of that bollocks, there must be a funny story here somewhere.
( Scrumper, Fri 20 Feb 2009, 10:09, 1 reply)

I'm pretty sure eating the *grain* would be better.
The cow does use a lot of the energy in the grain for itself, and to grow the bits that you don't eat. Not to mention that grain is really bad for cows, because their digestive system evolved to process grass. Feeding them essentially pure starch is not good.

Not that I'm arguing against eating cows here... what a cow *is*, is a good way of turning grass into food for humans. Because eating the grass definitely wouldn't solve any problems. And grass-fed beef is nicer than grain-fed, anyway.
(julius, Fri 20 Feb 2009, 10:25, closed)

Fair point
Yep, agree with the last paragraph. Generally though a lb of cow is going to give you more nutrition than a lb of grain (or grass, or any other plant) which was what I was trying to get at.

There's usually a mix in feeding. Bullocks will eat grass mostly but grain-based feed does come into it too to get them up to weight. All grain is very bad.

I am definitely having a steak tonight now.
( Scrumper, Fri 20 Feb 2009, 10:30, closed)

grain/grass/meat
er... Fail.

It's not really the point that meat is more energy-dense than grass or grain that is the point here. The point is, if you have one person, kept alive on meat, you could take the resources needed to do that, and feed 10 people, if they were vegans. And I'm not a hypocrite, I LOVE meat!! And eat lots of it too.
(Lump, Fri 20 Feb 2009, 13:42, closed)