<story><title>Why I Would Raise Chickens</title><url>https://www.gatesnotes.com/Development/Why-I-Would-Raise-Chickens</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Houshalter</author><text>&amp;gt; it&amp;#x27;s way more profitable to raise chickens than, say, cows. You need to have a bigger barn for cows, you need to do all the hay thing, which is very time consuming and demands a lot of extra work just for feeding said cows, you need to pay someone to take care of the cows when they go out to eat in the summer on the communal field.&lt;p&gt;This is surprising to me. Of course a cow should be more work to raise than a chicken. But it has so many times more meat on it than a chicken, and is more energy efficient per calorie consumed too.&lt;p&gt;Similarly with beans and cabbage. They might be easier to grow, but in terms of calories they seem much less efficient than, say, potatoes.&lt;p&gt;If this was addressed in the article, sorry. It&amp;#x27;s just a blank page on my browser.</text></item><item><author>paganel</author><text>My parents live in a village in Eastern Europe with less than $2 a day (I also chip in to financially help them), and they do indeed raise chickens, they&amp;#x27;ve being doing that for the last 15 years or so, since they moved out to the countryside.&lt;p&gt;Bill Gates is correct in his assessment, it&amp;#x27;s way more profitable to raise chickens than, say, cows. You need to have a bigger barn for cows, you need to do all the hay thing, which is very time consuming and demands a lot of extra work just for feeding said cows, you need to pay someone to take care of the cows when they go out to eat in the summer on the communal field. It&amp;#x27;s easier to just barter your chickens&amp;#x27; eggs for some milk or cheese, that&amp;#x27;s at least what my mom does.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s also quite profitable to grow beans and cabbage. They preserve well over winter well into spring and you can also use them for bartering.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>paganel</author><text>&amp;gt; They might be easier to grow, but in terms of calories they seem much less efficient than, say, potatoes&lt;p&gt;I agree about potatoes, but that only works for relatively cooler climates, i.e. places like Poland or Ireland. It can easily get to 35-37 degrees Celsius in the summer at the place where my parents live (not to mention places like the Indian subcontinent or Africa), at which point storing potatoes becomes a challenge.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; But it has so many times more meat on it than a chicken, and is more energy efficient per calorie consumed too.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s all about the return on investment. Raising cows only becomes financially viable once you pass a certain number threshold (meaning big farms), otherwise you&amp;#x27;re pretty much doing voluntary work. It&amp;#x27;s a lot of work in order to feed a cow, I mean, lots and lots of work, and said work is pretty effective in burning calories. A lot of farmers in the European Union who are in the cow-raising business (I&amp;#x27;d say most) wouldn&amp;#x27;t make it without financial help from the EU and from their governments.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;d say that goats are a lot better option if you really need meat. They feed practically on everything (cows are a lot more picky) and they&amp;#x27;re smaller, so they&amp;#x27;re easier to &amp;quot;store&amp;quot; and protect at night. This is why I think they&amp;#x27;re so widespread in the poorer regions of the world.</text></comment>
<story><title>Why I Would Raise Chickens</title><url>https://www.gatesnotes.com/Development/Why-I-Would-Raise-Chickens</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Houshalter</author><text>&amp;gt; it&amp;#x27;s way more profitable to raise chickens than, say, cows. You need to have a bigger barn for cows, you need to do all the hay thing, which is very time consuming and demands a lot of extra work just for feeding said cows, you need to pay someone to take care of the cows when they go out to eat in the summer on the communal field.&lt;p&gt;This is surprising to me. Of course a cow should be more work to raise than a chicken. But it has so many times more meat on it than a chicken, and is more energy efficient per calorie consumed too.&lt;p&gt;Similarly with beans and cabbage. They might be easier to grow, but in terms of calories they seem much less efficient than, say, potatoes.&lt;p&gt;If this was addressed in the article, sorry. It&amp;#x27;s just a blank page on my browser.</text></item><item><author>paganel</author><text>My parents live in a village in Eastern Europe with less than $2 a day (I also chip in to financially help them), and they do indeed raise chickens, they&amp;#x27;ve being doing that for the last 15 years or so, since they moved out to the countryside.&lt;p&gt;Bill Gates is correct in his assessment, it&amp;#x27;s way more profitable to raise chickens than, say, cows. You need to have a bigger barn for cows, you need to do all the hay thing, which is very time consuming and demands a lot of extra work just for feeding said cows, you need to pay someone to take care of the cows when they go out to eat in the summer on the communal field. It&amp;#x27;s easier to just barter your chickens&amp;#x27; eggs for some milk or cheese, that&amp;#x27;s at least what my mom does.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s also quite profitable to grow beans and cabbage. They preserve well over winter well into spring and you can also use them for bartering.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>thevardanian</author><text>I highly doubt that Beef is a more efficient if source of meat than Chicken. I think Chicken meat is a lot more efficient.&lt;p&gt;A little quick googling and I found: 
&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Feed_conversion_ratio&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Feed_conversion_ratio&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>