<p>If a grazing animal eats pasture which contains 1 joule of energy it must use some of its own energy to eat and process the pasture.</p>
<p>The act of moving around the field to eat uses energy the animal has stored. Similarly, the act of biting the pasture and chewing it uses animal energy. If the animal is a ruminant, such as cattle or goats, the pasture is regurgitated and chewed as cud a number of times. This utilizes animal energy. Moving the chewed pasture through the digestive tract and further processing it again uses animal energy. Finally, excreting the chewed pasture, now a bowel stool and soon to be manure, also uses animal energy. The animal expends energy in eating and processing the pasture.</p>
<p>Additionally, the act of excreting the pasture as manure means that not all the available energy within the consumed pasture was absorbed by the grazing animal. Some of it remains in the manure, available for other life forms: worms, insect larvae, bacteria to consume.</p>
<p>So, the initial grazing animal didn't get all of the available energy within the pasture it ate. There is never 100 percent transference of energy. There are always energy losses. The initial grazing animal needs to consume more than 1 joule of pasture if it wants to absorb 1 joule of energy from what it eats.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-06-12T03:15:57.687Z
Using humans as an example: we go through a couple thousand calories a day while maintaining weight, and we only contain on the order of 100 thousand calories. So just to exist, there's a non-negligible amount of energy intake. In a year, a human would consume over 500k calories and only contain 100k
fyrepenguin
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-06-11T19:59:05.683Z
2022-06-11T19:59:05.683Z
Fred
<p>Why is one Joule of pasture is not equal to one Joule of meat according to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergy" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Emergy</a> analysis? Is it because the energy going into the pasture can be renewable or non-rewnewable?</p>

<energy>
Why is one Joule of pasture is not equal to one Joule of meat according to Emergy analysis?
CountDOOKU
# Why is one Joule of pasture is not equal to one Joule of meat according to Emergy analysis?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2022-06-11)

Why is one Joule of pasture is not equal to one Joule of meat according to [Emergy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergy) analysis? Is it because the energy going into the pasture can be renewable or non-rewnewable?

**Tags:** energy


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2022-06-11. Score: 4

If a grazing animal eats pasture which contains 1 joule of energy it must use some of its own energy to eat and process the pasture.

The act of moving around the field to eat uses energy the animal has stored. Similarly, the act of biting the pasture and chewing it uses animal energy. If the animal is a ruminant, such as cattle or goats, the pasture is regurgitated and chewed as cud a number of times. This utilizes animal energy. Moving the chewed pasture through the digestive tract and further processing it again uses animal energy. Finally, excreting the chewed pasture, now a bowel stool and soon to be manure, also uses animal energy. The animal expends energy in eating and processing the pasture.

Additionally, the act of excreting the pasture as manure means that not all the available energy within the consumed pasture was absorbed by the grazing animal. Some of it remains in the manure, available for other life forms: worms, insect larvae, bacteria to consume.

So, the initial grazing animal didn't get all of the available energy within the pasture it ate. There is never 100 percent transference of energy. There are always energy losses. The initial grazing animal needs to consume more than 1 joule of pasture if it wants to absorb 1 joule of energy from what it eats.

> **Comments:**
> **username_2**: Using humans as an example: we go through a couple thousand calories a day while maintaining weight, and we only contain on the order of 100 thousand calories. So just to exist, there's a non-negligible amount of energy intake. In a year, a human would consume over 500k calories and only contain 100k  

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