[uoaei]

The thought-terminating cliche raises its head again.

There is nothing "ecologically" sound about keeping cows alive and burping on the cheapest feed available. This is not a criticism of your response, just pointing out that these kinds of cliches become culturally embedded after a certain amount of time, even if they do not reflect the reality.

[CalRobert]

I'm not disagreeing with you, I'm just saying that people have lots of different reasons for choosing to be vegetarian, and animal welfare isn't always their concern. I certainly recognize dairy has a large ecological impact (I live in Ireland after all; we're choking on dairy) but someone who eats dairy and beef probably has a greater impact than someone who eats dairy and plant-based foods.