Should We All Go Vegetarian?

The cover of a recent issue of New Scientist (17/7/2010) caught my eye, asking the intriguing question "What happens if we all quit meat?". Intriguing because it's a known fact that going vegetarian or vegan can reduce your carbon footprint and is better for the environment. So wouldn't it be even better if everyone went veggie?

All agriculture hurts the environment: Forests and grasslands are cleared; fertilisers and pesticides pollute the rivers; and carbon emissions are created by agricultural machinary, processing of the produce, and all those farting animals.

Clearing forests and prairies further increases agriculture's carbon footprint because it removes trees and grassland that would otherwise be absorbing CO2.

Livestock farming produces the most carbon partly because we have to grow crops to feed them. In fact, our livestock consumes one third of all the grain we grow! If we all went vegan, we could return a fifth of the land used for crops back to Nature and reduce carbon emissions by 18%. It would also reduce nitrogen polution (by up to 60%), soil erosion, and pesticide useage.

However, these animals don't have to be fed grain. Grain is just more efficient.

Getting rid of livestock would deprive us of by-products like leather, wool, and even manure.

And livestock is essential to up to a billion rural poor, because it provides the opportunity for extra income and a good source of protein.

So, if not vegan, maybe we could all go vegetarian (giving us eggs and dairy products)? Well, you can't produce milk without meat. Cows need to calve every year to continue producing milk and half of those calves would be male. How do you justify keeping large herds of non-productive bulls and retired cows? The only logical choice is to kill them for meat. A similar argument would apply to chickens.

So a meat-free World would make no sense.

Having said that, I see no reason why we in the Developed countries shouldn't reduce our meat consumption as far as we choose to. If we all need to reduce our carbon footprint to 2 tonnes per person, then having meat-free days could be a part of that (e.g. You can save up to half a tonne by going vegetarian, more if you go vegan). And, to be honest, if meat prices go up in the way that's predicted in the future, meat may end up being an occasional treat anyway.