I’m not a vegetarian, and probably couldn’t do very well as one. But I do shift down impact levels, eating more chicken and fish (low carbon and low general impact, unless the fish was farmed or is a species under pressure) than pork and other meat, and very little beef (highest impact, both in carbon and land-use, pesticides, etc.). I also eat quite a bit less meat than the average American, but it’s still probably about once a day.

I think it’s also important to qualify the problem with meat - it’s really a problem of concentrating the effects of industrial agriculture. Corn ag. uses tons of fuel, natural gas derived fertilized, machinery, and processing - lots of energy, which is the vast majority of the carbon emissions in meat, especially beef. I was a bit suspicious about the numbers provided as well, but I know that American agriculture is responsible for about as much global warming as American cars, and since corn is over half of that, and 60% of America’s corn is fed JUST to steers, I can rather easily believe cow farts, soil disturbance, and tropical forest degradation (lots of those hamburgers are raised in Brazil and similar places) could make up the 18% claimed. The main problem, at least in terms of carbon emissions is not meat per se, but how it’s produced.

This may sound like semantics until one realizes that grass fed beef done in a manner that maintains pasture diversity, might actually be carbon negative - that is, taking more carbon out of the atmosphere than is released. This is because appropriate, non-intensive grazing stimulates root carbon storage in the soil by grasses, adding dramatically to soil carbon at a very rapid rate. If a vegetarian is getting industrially produced food, it could actually have a higher carbon footprint. Organic food is only sometimes better, since if it has been shipped across the country or around the world, the small reduction in fossil fuel use in agriculture is offset by the transport fuel. Local food is one key to climate nuetral dining. This is a very complex picture.

I just wanted to point out that there are many ways to eat climate smart, and that we have to look at it very carefully.

I would strongly recommend Michael Pollan’s The Omnivores Dilemma. I’m reading it for a class actually, but it’s thoroughly engrossing. It talks all about food - its cultural and ecological sustainability - and how to do it right.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0220/p03s01-ussc.html?s=hns

i did the same thing, Jesse, but only about 3 years ago. I wonder how many Americans would be willing to give up meat if the evidence were so clearly presented?