From the standpoint of availability of food resources, would it not make more sense to use everything in the corn as foodstuff? Or does the ethanol come from only the part of the corn the cattle would turn into methane, without any advantage to the cattle?
Also, from the standpoint of feeding people, when there is not enough to go around, production of beef is an inefficent way to provide foodstuffs. (Ok, ok, I like a good burger or steak too...)
Read up on “acidosis” in cattle as a result of feeding raw corn. Feeding DDG’s is better for the cattle.
But to your second point: If push comes to shove on food prices, you’ll see beef and milk prices skyrocket. About half of our corn and bean crops go into feedlot and TMR dairy rations, with some by-products of other crops (wheat mids, for example) also going into cattle feed. Add in pork feed is mostly grain, horses get grain, etc.
In the US, we used to have more acres than we have in corn tied up in the production of hay for horses for use as transportation and draft animals. We’re currently using about 90 million acres for corn - we used to have almost 100 million acres in hay for horses.
The problem with using all of the corn as a feedstuff is that we have way, way, way, too much corn.
We produce too much food, including meats, and exports are absolutely critical for agriculture.
For example, did you know that the pork industry was only 90 days from total and complete collapse last spring (2010)? The pending collapse was due, in large part, to the mountains of surplus corn, more than could possibly be used as feedstuffs.
We would have lost well over 90% of our pork supply had that happened. The producers hung on by the skin of their teeth.