On Fri, 08 Jul 2005 13:56:55 +0000, usenet wrote:

Martin Bonner wrote:
T i m wrote:
Assuming we eat meat for a reason (I mean we can't live on
grass, we aren't built for it)
what else could this number of folk easily eat to survive?
Lots of things. The static I remember is that you get more protein
from a field of cabbages than a field of cows. (The energy comparisons
will be even more favourable to vegetables.)

But that presupposes we eat the same amount of cabbage as cow - or
more accurately/relevantly that a field of cabbages will feed more
people with enough protein than a field of cows. It doesn't
necessarily follow.

It doesn't necessarily follow, but in this case he's right. A vegetarian
needs less land area to grow their food than a meat eater needs to raise
theirs. However, not all land is suitable for growing crops, but may be
usefully used to graze sheep for example.

Kieran