Meat Eaters may be more Environmentally Beneficial than Vegetarians..

Posted on January 14, 2012 by Sarah J.

Fo sho!

Interesting article written by SARAH LASKOW at Good.is.

Enjoy your meat
Jamby

Why Eating Some Meat May Be Better for the Environment Than Going Vegetarian

Andrew Sullivan is known for his articulate, well-thought-out responses to nearly everything. But when a reader wrote in to ask why, despite his advocacy for animals rights, the famed blogger still ate meat, Sullivan didn’t have much to say for himself.

 

“I don’t really have a defense…I eat meat because I really like it,” he offered. “I’m a sort of protein kind of guy… I’m not a big carb kind of guy… Without meat I don’t know what I’d do.”

 

Sullivan’s response touches on a major reason why more people don’t eat vegetarian: Most people like meat too much to give it up. I was a vegetarian for five years before pastrami lured me back to the ranks of meat-eaters. My younger sister crossed over for bacon. When I was a vegetarian, people would always ask me why. No one questions the power of pastrami.

 

Now I make a concerted effort to eat less meat, a dietary strategy that disarms even dedicated carnivores. Americans are coming around to this way of eating: As food writer Mark Bittman pointed out earlier this week, Americans’ meat consumption has been declining for years, and the Department of Agriculture is projecting that the country will eat even less beef and chicken in 2012. Beef industry watchers blame rising costs forced by drought, ethanol production, and increased demand from countries like China, where incomes are rising. Bittman suggests that some consumers simply have chosen to eat vegetarian occasionally.

 

In fact, eating vegetarian occasionally could be a smarter environmental choice than eating no meat at all. The diet of those who eschew only red meat could have a smaller carbon footprint than that of dairy-loving vegetarians: A serving of chicken has a lower carbon impact than a serving of hard cheese. The real advantage, though, is that eating less meat opens up conversations about food choices with meat-eaters, while vegetarianism often shuts them down.

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