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Edwynn -> RE: The Great Corn Con (6/26/2011 3:10:11 AM)
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The amount of water involved in beef production includes all water consumption involved in the crop production to feed the cattle, to wash their indoor habitat, and the slaughtering and production process, not merely what they drink themselves. Likewise the acreage covering all inputs to cattle raising, not merely grazing requirements. As mentioned in another recent thread, grass fed may be better, but how much of the beef actually produced is purely grass fed? Corn feed lots are the normal routine for the majority of beef production. Rain forest clearing to raise cattle has been going on for decades prior to ethanol production, so why is all the aforementioned OK and ethanol not OK, regarding resource usage?
But the figures I used were off the top of my head, from memory, and would not surprise me if not 100% correct. It wasn't from PETA but almost any source delving into the subject is likely to be biased one way or another.
Here's an example:
http://treehuggerbarbie.com/2011/03/29/it-takes-approximately-12009-gallons-of-water-to-create-one-pound-of-beef/
In any regard, I hope it's clear that I'm not the biggest fan of corn ethanol. But I think all this focus on ethanol and claims of environmental destruction and putative cause of starvation, etc., is quite disingenuous in light of the fact of other causes that have much greater effect on that having been in process for many years already, and a back-handed slap at any environmental concerns at all.
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