40% of lost calories globally are from beef, needing 33 cal of feed per 1 cal

Re:40% of lost calories globally are from beef, needing 33 c... by BadBadJellyBean on Tuesday April 14, 2026 @02:53PM (#47769754)

"The market" doesn't work as long as costs to the environment can be externalized. If the cost of climate change and lost living space would be added to the cost of beef it might be fair. But it isn't. Methane released by cows, cutting down rain forests for feed, and all the transporting costs us all dearly. But it doesn't cost the manufacturers anything directly so beef can be cheap.

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Re:40% of lost calories globally are from beef, needing 33 c... by brainwad on Tuesday April 14, 2026 @03:28PM (#47770273)

Just slap a pigouvian tax on it.

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Re:40% of lost calories globally are from beef, needing 33 c... by sirbutters on Tuesday April 14, 2026 @03:08PM (#47769969)

And meat is heavily subsidized by the government. It's insanity and corruption.

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Re:40% of lost calories globally are from beef, needing 33 c... by RhysU on Tuesday April 14, 2026 @03:15PM (#47770073)

In the US agricultural subsidies for 2024 were overwhelmingly for corn ($3.2B), soybeans ($1.9B), cotton ($998M), and wheat ($960M). Pasture comes in 5th ($741M).

https://usafacts.org/articles/federal-farm-subsidies-what-da...

Tofu and ethanol may be more price-distorted by the US government than is beef, but I dunno how to quickly support that idea with hard data beyond what I cited above.

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Re:40% of lost calories globally are from beef, needing 33 c... by stvltvs on Tuesday April 14, 2026 @03:32PM (#47770329)

Depending on how we measure it, either 58% or 75% of that heavily subsidized soy goes to feed animals.

https://insideanimalag.org/share-of-soybean-crop-for-feed/

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Re:40% of lost calories globally are from beef, needing 33 c... by datsci_est_2015 on Tuesday April 14, 2026 @03:21PM (#47770171)

Have you been to the Midwest to observe the scale of corn and soybean operations? I would wager the number of calories per dollar subsidy produced by the corn and soybean industries outweighs handily the calories per dollar subsidy produced by cattle operations, especially given the 10% reduction in efficiency per trophic level.

Also, how much does beef benefit from cheap feed prices (corn and soy) due to subsidies as well?

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Re:40% of lost calories globally are from beef, needing 33 c... by RhysU on Wednesday April 15, 2026 @01:07AM (#47774893)

Beef prices are high right now.

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/APU0000703112

If the intent of the government is to pour subsidies into domestic beef production to stabilize prices they're doing a crap job.

Compare corn: https://www.macrotrends.net/2532/corn-prices-historical-char...

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Re:40% of lost calories globally are from beef, needing 33 c... by shafyy on Tuesday April 14, 2026 @03:46PM (#47770531)

You jabroni, what do you think they use that soybean and corn for? Exactly, to feed liveestock.

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Re:40% of lost calories globally are from beef, needing 33 c... by Ferret7446 on Tuesday April 14, 2026 @09:48PM (#47773725)

I thought most of the corn goes to ethanol

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Re:40% of lost calories globally are from beef, needing 33 c... by RhysU on Wednesday April 15, 2026 @01:12AM (#47774926)

A little over a third of production evidently goes to ethanol: https://afdc.energy.gov/data/10339

No idea if subsidies disproportionately subsidize fuel ethanol over non-fuel usage.

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Re:40% of lost calories globally are from beef, needing 33 c... by enoint on Wednesday April 15, 2026 @10:20AM (#47779373)

We're more than 40 years past the first boycotts on rainforest beef. Not small boycotts, either; big ones which were effective at scale. If we translated the concerns here into Chinese, would it affect the current top importer of rainforest beef?

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