Meat-Eater or Veggi?

Textbook wrote: I like meat but as time goes on I feel increasingly guilty about eating it for ecological reasons. Going vegetarian is good for the environment as the meat industry causes starvation and wrecks the environment. Going to seafood is in some ways worse because the ocean is nearly fished out.   But in typically cognitively dissonant fashion I continue to eat meat all the time.   I can't help it, NZ bacon is just too good.

You can't feed 6 billion people by foraging so no matter what we eat we are a massive ecological impact looking for somewhere to hit next. Since we have to resort to intensive farming to feed a population everything we grow buggers up the ecology of somewhere - whether we grow turnips to feed ourselves or our cattle we still need to grow the turnips. The reality for peoples living on islands or in small mainland countries is we simply cannot grow enough protein-rich vegetables to feed ourselves, but we can grow the crappy low-protein ones (like turnips) that we can then feed to animals who convert them into high-protein meat. Whether we are vegetarian or omnivore, most island nations and small mainland countries cannot grow the diversity of food that we require in our daily diet so we have to import it. The moment we have to transport any food from one country to another we take another ecological bite out of the environment, and if that bite is in the transportation of low value foods (low protein, low calorie, low energy) then the ecological impact is disproportional higher.

Padraic wrote: Dean wrote:  avec le tête  Now picture your old French teacher scolding you.

I couldn't possibly eat a female head...