Yet another reason to eat less meat! (as if I needed one)

There’s a great article in the NY Times about the environmental implications of the meat industry. Eating grains rather than grain-fed animals would reduce pollution, feed more people, and cost less. It would also help to eliminate the overcrowding and inhumane conditions at many cattle ranches and pig farms and reduce the need for antibiotic injections for livestock. Overall it’s a much more sustainable way of eating.

I have been a vegetarian for almost 10 years now, and normally I don’t bother trying to convince other people to go vegetarian. First, it’s rude and annoying and no one wants to hear it, and second, you’ll probably never be able to convince someone to change their whole diet. They have to decide that for themselves.

But this article is really well written, so maybe I’ll be annoying just this one time and send it to my meat eating friends. After all, the moral of the story is just that eating LESS meat would be helpful both for the environment, and for the general public. Anyone who’s already buying organic milk and produce or looking for cage-free eggs might actually be open to this idea and start to make small changes to their diet. Baby steps, right?