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