Beef Analysis

1. Grain Farming - Protein and Fat

-Some calculations considering a 13,000 square foot farm used to grow the grain to feed cattle:

According to Business Insider, a 1/4 lb of processed beef needs 65 square feet and 13 lbs of feed. Therefore, 65 square feet yields 13 lb of feed.
A 13,000 square feet farm would produce 2600 lbs of feed.
This feed is likely grain with a development cycle of 7 months (source: SFGATE)
According to FAO, the feed conversion rate for beef is 1 lb of beef takes 25 lbs of feed. Therefore, this 2600 lbs of feed will produce 104 lbs of beef.
Assuming the beef is 85% lean, this 104 lbs would provide 12.22 kg of protein and 7.21 kg of fat (source: USDA).

2. Grain Farming- CO2 Emissions

A reliable estimate from the University of Copenhagen places beef at about 20 kgCO2/kg of beef.

So that 13,000 square foot farm that yields 104 lbs of beef will produce 944 kg of CO2, or about 1 Ton of CO2.
Certainly keep in mind that this is just if that farm was used to grow the feed for cattle. There would also need to be land for the cows to roam.

3. How many people could be sustained from this farm?

We will use the estimate of 56 g of protein needed a day.
Over 7 months, the 12.22 kg of protein total will yield 57.37 g of protein a day. This is only enough protein for 1 person.
That means the 1 person is responsible for the full GHG emissions, which breaks down to 4.43 kg of CO2 each day.

Grain Farming for Beef Results

Chicken Analysis

1. Chicken Farming - Protein and Fat

-Some calculations considering a 13,000 square foot farm used to raise chickens:

According to the National Chicken Council, a single chicken is required by the Council of Agricultural Science and Technology to have 0.5 sq. ft of room, but the average is 0.8 sq. ft. The 13,000 sq ft farm will have 16,250 birds
The average market weight of a chicken is 5 pounds, and yields 3 pounds of meat (source: Penn State). The 13,000 sq ft farm will produce 48,750 pounds of meat per development cycle
The average market age of a chicken is 47 days (source: National Chicken Council)
There are 123 grams of protein and 62 grams of fat per pound of chicken meat (source: USDA)
The 48,750 pounds of chicken meat produced per cycle will contain 5996.35 kg of protein and 3022.5 kg of fat

2. Chicken Farming- CO2 Emissions

A reliable estimate from the University of Michigan places chicken at about 3 kgCO2/kg of chicken.

So that 13,000 square foot farm that yields 48,750 lbs of chicken will produce 66,500 kg of CO2, for each development cycle, or about 66.5 Tons of CO2.

3. How many people could be sustained from this farm?

We will use the estimate of 56 g of protein needed a day.
Over 47 days, the 5996.25 kg of protein total will yield 127.6 kg of protein a day. This is enough protein for 2278 people.
That means the GHG emissions per person sustained breaks down to 0.6211 kg of CO2 each day

Chicken Farm Results

1. Grain Farming (Chicken) - Protein and Fat

-Some calculations considering a 13,000 square foot farm used to grow the grain to feed chicken:

A 13,000 square feet farm would produce 2600 lbs of feed based on our calculation for cattle.
This feed is likely grain with a development cycle of 7 months (source: SFGATE)
According to the National Chicken Council, 1.82 pounds of feed are needed per market weight pound of chicken raised. Therefore, our 2600 pounds of feed will support 1428.6 pounds of chicken, which will be 857.14 pounds of chicken meat, from our conversion of 3 pounds meat weight to 5 pounds market weight.
This chicken would provide 105.43 kg of protein and 53.14 kg of fat (source: USDA).

2. Grain Farming (Chicken) - CO2 Emissions

A reliable estimate from the University of Michigan places chicken at about 3 kgCO2/kg of chicken.

So that 13,000 square foot farm that yields 857.14 lbs of chicken will produce 1168.83kg of CO2, or about 1.2 Tons of CO2.

3. How many people could be sustained from this farm?

We will use the estimate of 56 g of protein needed a day.
Over 7 months, the 105.43 kg of protein total will yield 485.85 g of protein a day. This is enough protein for 8 people, almost 9.
That means that 1 person is responsible for GHG emissions of 0.67 kg of CO2 each day.

Grain Farm For Chicken Results