Corn’s efficient, rain-fed cultivation has high yields and relatively low energy costs—equivalent to about 50 milliliters of diesel fuel per kilogram of grain—but the energy cost of irrigated corn may be twice as high as that of rain-fed feed, and typical corn yields and feeding efficiencies around the world are lower than in the US. As a result, feed costs alone can be as low as 150 milliliters of diesel fuel per kilogram of edible meat, and as high as 750 mL/kg.
