Disclaimer: I'm vegan<p>I really don't know how to help attitudes move towards a plant based life-style. I don't bother bringing it up because the second the topic is introduced, people feel attacked and that I'm just doing it to feel superior. Amusingly enough, it's usually omnivores that bring up that topic but still are obviously uneasy about the whole thing.
To me it would be ideal if plant based food was the default and animal products an expensive luxury. Not unaffordable, let's say a dish with meat costs about twice as much as a vegan dish in most restaurants.<p>But I would already be perfectly happy and content if all the wonderful places in the world I want to visit had vegan food at all.
Of course I understand that people struggling with hunger and poverty have more important things to worry about.<p>I don't know what it takes to "save the planet". Everyone going vegan might not be enough. But that ship has probably sailed anyway. The planet will have plenty of time to recover and/or become something new after humans disappeared (themselves). What bugs me is seeing animals suffer, regardless of species (including humans ofc).
Killing yourself reduces your impact on the Earth by 100% - that doesn't mean it is a productive thing to do. Individual action isn't going to fix this. Each person's contribution is too small. Systemic change is the only way to address this.<p>Modern industrialized agriculture has a lot of issues. Other methods of agriculture can have net-negative emissions: grow all of your feedstock onsite and use waste products to produce more feedstock. If all the carbon you emit was previously captured onsite, you're only 'borrowing' carbon, not really producing it. Slightly net-negative carbon as soil is built as a byproduct.
See Joel Salatin for further reading.<p>I think writing articles about how "You, individual, can do something to save the Earth" is ineffective moralizing not unlike Facebook posts asking to "Share this if you want to end human trafficking!" - the only tangible effect is self-promotion of the author and inflating the self-esteem of the readers who go along with it.
In addition to having fewer children (or none at all), I wonder how much of a difference it makes to have children later in life?<p>What's the math on starting to have kids at 30 years of age instead of 20, especially if that pattern is repeated by your progeny?
Suicide is, absolutely, the single biggest way to reduce your impact on Earth, period.<p>That doesn't make it a good idea. Likewise, it's not a good idea to pretend you're not an omnivore.
Are there any studies regarding the body's absorption of animal protein versus plant-based protein?<p>I feel like this subject is often very emotional for some people, but what about science?
Having fewer kids, or no kids at all, is actually the single biggest way to reduce impact on Earth.<p>Also, as can be seen on the graph of the article, the major problem is actually beef, and not meat in general.<p>Something the article doesn't mention, and maybe the paper doesn't take into account, is distribution. Fruits and vegetables can have a bigger footprint than certain meats because these can be transported off season from very long distances.<p><a href="http://the-ecotarian.com/stories/2016/2/26/environmental-impacts-of-food-2-transport" rel="nofollow">http://the-ecotarian.com/stories/2016/2/26/environmental-imp...</a>