why is protein from plant cheaper than animals?

Answer 1

Quite a few good answers already! But try looking at it this way...

You grow 1000 pounds of grain. That will feed you for quite a long time or you could sell it for a dollar a pound (just to keep easy math) and have a 1000 dollars to spend.

Now feed that same 1000 pounds of grain to your choice of animal. Using the standard ratio that 10 pounds of grain are needed to gain 1 pound of animal growth you now have 100 pounds of meat. How long will you be able to live on 100 pounds of meat? You could sell the meat for cash but since you have all that grain invested in your animal you'll need to get a minimum of 10 dollars a pound to break even (forgetting the time spent growing the animals). Are you beginning to see the 'moral' of this little exercise?

Due to the inherent inefficiency of meat production the cost of animal 'food' has to be higher!

Answer 2

Protein from plants is derived from the soil with the help of energy supplied free of charge by the sun. Preparation of plant products is relatively inexpensive.
Animal proteins are manufactured from plant derived proteins with energy supplied by yet more plants, all of which cost the farmer money.
As a lot of the plant derived energy is used to maintain the animal there is a lot of what can be considered waste energy.
In modern farming most of the animals food may also be manufactured adding to the cost. Further costs are added by the costs of slaughtering and preparing and cold storage of animal products.
The only thing animal products have going for them is, in my opinion, the taste. You just can't beat a Bacon sandwich.

Answer 3

Because plants grow from sunshine water and soil. Animals grow from plants, so instead of humans eating 100 ears of corn over 100 days, one cow eats 100 ears of corn a day, so it is a waste of plant products.

Answer 4

It takes 15kg of protein to produce Ikg of beef so that is one cost reason. Also it takes a lot of effort to care for and raise animals, lees so for vegetables.

Answer 5

Because it's straight from the source - you don't have to feed it through an animal first.

Answer 6

I once read somewhere that land produces food of vegatable origen substancially more efficiently than the same amount of land can produce meat

Answer 7

They are less labor intensive and that results in less cost being passed on to the consumer.

Answer 8

Cost of production, and time to get to market

Answer 9

its more efficient and costs less to grow