Re-printed from the April 2010 issue of the Ester Republic.

Eating more vegetables is advice you hear a lot of these days. It is good advice in an age where people consume significantly more animal protein than is necessary, or even rational. Our culture’s unprecedented meat hunger is a top offender among the sustainability-minded, right up there with gas guzzling cars and incandescent light bulbs. As a result, vegetarianism and veganism are experiencing something of a renaissance. Many have long chosen to drop meats and other animal products from their diets, for health or even moral reasons, but many more are now doing so out as a way to “go green.” But is it true that humanity would be more ecologically sustainable if we all became vegetarians and vegans? Holding the arguments of ethics and health aside, my sense is that an entirely plant-based diet would be at least as unsustainable as the meat-heavy diets we all eat today. There are at least three reasons. (more…)