Well this is getting farther from Vanagon Content, but interesting none the less. Rule of thumb: For every step up a trophic level only 10% of energy is retained. So converting grain to energy for humans moderated by cows will only result in humans using 1% of the grain's energy. The rest is lost along the way. Cutting cows out of the equation does not mean we have to eat as much grain as the cows do. In any case, most biodiesel I've heard about involves folks harvesting used fast food fryer oil. I wonder how many vehicles could run off the fast food industry waste? Kirk Hockin '83 Westy "Ariolimax"
-----Original Message----- From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of Jim Felder Sent: May 12, 2004 5:34 PM To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM Subject: Re: Diesels on NPR this morning If I remember correctly, the amount of vegetable protein required to produce a pound of animal protein is about 8-1. I know this doesn't proves anything, just, er, food for thought. Theoretically, a purely fish/seafood/vegetarian diet would allow a lot of acreage to be put into oil production, but it wouldn't be 8-1 because of the increased amount of vegetable protein we humans would consume to offset the loss of animal protein. Jim |
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