Vegetarianism Not So Good

February 13, 2010 at 10:10 am

It seems like vegetarians and other LibDem sandal-wearing hipy types may have some explaining to do:

Adopting a vegetarian diet based around meat substitutes such as tofu can cause more damage to the environment, according to a new study.


The study concluded: “A switch from beef and milk to highly refined livestock product analogues such as tofu could actually increase the quantity of arable land needed to supply the UK.”


The results showed that the amount of foreign land required to produce the substitute products – and the potential destruction of forests to make way for farmland – outweighed the negatives of rearing beef and lamb in the UK.


Meat substitutes were also found to be highly processed, often requiring large amounts of energy to produce. The study recognised that the environmental merits of vegetarianism depended largely on which types of foods were consumed as an alternative to meat.


The study authors also noted that increased vegetarianism might “result in the collapse of British farming” and more ruinition of worldwide ecosystems as agriculture moves to places with “less legal protection of forests and uncultivated land.”

Oops.

And, since vegetarians may have smaller brains than the rest of us, how are we supposed to educate them about their eco-unfriendly diet?

Hat-tip: Moonbattery