The purpose of this chapter was to trace the routes of carbon from the diet to glucose available to farm animals. It is important for students to see beyond this context to the overall challenge to agricul- tural scientists. Examination of the human population curve reveals that we as a society must produce as much food for human consumption during the next 40 years as we have produced since the begin- ning of time. The driving force for all of agriculture is solar radiation that must be captured and converted to food for humans. Of the biomass captured by photosynthesis, most of which is carbo- hydrate, 95% is unavailable as a direct source of food for humans. Animals can convert much of this non-food biomass into high-quality food.
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