Meat is not bad for the environment. Factory farms are indeed terrible, but they're not the only way to raise animals. On the other hand, grain agriculture is beyond fixing See http://lierrekeith.com/vegmyth.htm for a great intro.
Meat is also healthy. Grains are not. See any of these
Thank you for making this point. A lot of the other commenters here start by stating that meat is definitely bad for you and then go on to make some point about the article based on that initial premise. It would seem that meat may in fact be quite good for humans to eat and it's really disturbing how ingrained the idea that meat is bad has been drilled into our entire society.
No matter how you slice it (no pun intended), raising an animal for human consumption is a net energy loss. AFAICT, it's just a mathematical fact. Unless you have magic cows that photosynthesize, you are taking resources that could have gone toward supporting a human being and instead using them to grow an animal.
I mean, if you're happy with your Neo-Atkins Diet, that's cool, but enough already with this looking down on people who don't eat as trendily as you do.
Also, keep in mind that modern grain agriculture is 100% dependent on fossil fuels.
Back in the day, animals were raised on the farm along with vegetables. The animals ate the cellulose (inedible to us) and scraps and created protein. They also created fertilizer (today it is synthesized from fossil fuels and wreaks environmental havoc - the Dead Zone at the mouth of the Mississippi is mostly caused by nitrogen runoff from farms) and ate bugs, so there was no need for pesticides.
I can't cite an authoritative source but I think the idea is the amount of unforested, undeveloped grassland on the planet is nowhere near enough to support the current meat intake of the world population. There are actually similar issues with organic vegetables too.
Of course if people wanted to eat much less meat, and if there were a lot fewer people, things might work better sure.
That's probably true. However, like I said above, our agriculture is also unsustainable. Most of the increase in crop yields over the past few decades have come as a result of fossil fuel-based fertilizers. Without oil yields would plummet. Overpopulation is the problem.
Ideally, animals should be raised either on land that's not suitable for agriculture, or on the farm, eating the inedible plant parts and providing more of a closed-loop ecosystem.
Also, I just want to make it clear that I'm not trying to bash vegetarians. Just the opposite - I think it's great that people care. Eating ethically is very important to me. I've given it a lot of thought, and that's precisely the reason I eat local pastured meat.