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Without knowing anything about this topic, calories produced per gallons of water used seems like the right metric. Some quick googling I got this math.

1 almond = 7 calories, 7 cals / 1 gallon = 7 cals/gal

1 lb beef = 213 calories, 213 cals / (110 to 1300) gallons = 2 to .16 cals/gal.

So there you go.

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Beef isn't all the same. You took the stock "1 lb beef calories" google result, which is reasonable, until you check say 70/30 instead of 85/15.

It shoots up to 1500 calories.

The almonds and any measure of beef probably results in a huge waste compared to some other methods of "growing" calories. I don't see them going away, though.

I wish 1 pound of beef was only 213 calories. I think you took Google's first result (https://www.google.com/search?q=1+lb+beef+calories) which is actually for 3 ounces (85 grams). You need to multiply that by 16/3 (there are 16 ounces in a pound) which gives 1136 calories/lb.

Oh cool. So using 1136 calories and the lower end of 110 gallons it comes to about 10 cals/gal which beats almonds!

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