Comparison of energy intensity of different food materials and their energy content

Abstract

The energy embodied in different food materials refers to energy input in its production in agricultural and or livestock farms in direct or indirect forms. In this work, it is intended to make a comparison among the energy intensity of cereals, cow milk and bull meat production. The study was performed to evaluate the energy flow in dairy farms and related feedstuff production farms in the northwest of Iran. According to the results, the energy intensity of wheat and maize corn is 4.35 and 9.19 MJ kg-1 , respectively, while they have the energy content of nearly 15 MJ kg-1 as food materials with almost 15% moisture content. The energy intensity of ECM milk was calculated to be 5.81 MJ kg-1 , while it has the energy content of only 3.15 MJ kg-1 , with a water content of 87.2%. As for boneless meat, for a bull mass of up to 400 kg, the energy intensity was 75.4 MJ kg-1 while it was 103.8 MJ kg-1 for bulls up to 700 kg body mass. It is much higher than for milk and cereals, while, it has only 8.8 MJ kg-1 energy content for the fresh state with nearly 70% water content. A comparison of these energy values indicates the high use of resources, harmful to the environment, for products of animal origin, especially for meat. This issue will get worse with an increasing demand for animal products in the future. Therefore, replacing bull meat with less energy-intensive food materials such as cereals and other meat, e.g. poultry, could reduce pressure on the environment.

Environmental impacts of cultured meat: A cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment

“…For unpurified scenarios, the higher level of energy use is largely associated with upstream processing facilities producing input products required for ACBM production. The HGM scenario was approximately ~1 MJ per kilogram greater than the lower estimate for boneless beef (Maysami & Berg, 2021). The AAR-PF and AGM-PF scenarios with growth mediums refined for animal cell culture required approximately an order of magnitude more energy than the reported low for boneless beef.…”