fivepoundsofproteinfromouracre.Interestinglyenough,
although most animals convert plant protein into animal
proteinmoreefficientlythancattledo—a pig,forinstance,
needs“only”eightpoundsofproteintoproduceonepound
for humans—thisadvantageis almost eliminatedwhen we
considerhowmuchproteinwecanproduceperacre,because
cattlecanmakeuseofsourcesofproteinthatareindigestible
forpigs.Somostestimatesconclude thatplantfoodsyield
about ten times as much protein per acre as meat does,
althoughestimatesvary,andtheratiosometimesgoesashigh
as twenty to one.^4
Ifinsteadofkillingtheanimalsandeatingtheirfleshweuse
themtoprovideuswithmilkoreggsweimproveourreturn
considerably.Neverthelesstheanimalsmuststilluseprotein
fortheirownpurposesandthemostefficientformsofegg
andmilkproductiondonotyieldmorethanaquarterofthe
protein per acre that can be provided by plant foods.
Protein is, of course, only one necessary nutrient. If we
comparethetotalnumberofcaloriesproducedbyplantfoods
with animal foods,the comparison is still all in favor of
plants.Acomparisonofyieldsfromanacresownwithoatsor
broccoliwith yieldsfromanacre usedforfeedto produce
pork, milk, poultry, or beef shows that the acre of oats
produces six times the calories yielded by pork, themost
efficientoftheanimalproducts.Theacreofbroccoliyields
nearly threetimes asmanycalories as pork.Oats produce
more than twenty-five times as many calories per acre as beef.
Lookingatsomeothernutrientsshattersothermythsfostered
bymeatanddairyindustries.Forinstance,anacreofbroccoli
producestwenty-fourtimestheironproducedbyanacreused
forbeef,andanacreofoatssixteentimesthesameamountof