“ I am also not making a judgement as to what the most environmentally friendly diet is either.”
The fact that this is in your opening paragraph and any mention of ethics garners responses from you like “get off your high horse” is kind of telling to me about what your conscience might be saying to you. Now, let me preface the rest of what I’m going to say by mentioning that I’m truly, truly not on a high horse. I ate meat for 22 years and didn’t see anything wrong with it. The only reason I changed is because of issues outside my control, like ease of access to education and being more willing than most to radically change my opinions and lifestyle. Most people don’t know the facts and don’t care to, and I believe that’s outside of their control too. That’s why I think it’s so important to talk about the ethics of eating meat. It’s not to aggressively “shove my beliefs” down anyone’s throat, whatever that means anyways, or look down on/judge anyone. I just want to try to make a difference because a conversation with a vegetarian (which was pretty rude and closed minded on my part) was what eventually made me change my mind and because I believe the right thing to do when you see injustice is to speak out against it.
I’m glad to see you speaking out against the abuses that go on in the animal agriculture industry. It is terrible and I would be much happier if more regulations were put in place, even if people were still eating meat. However, I don’t believe eating animals when it’s unnecessary is ethical and, even if it were, it’s horrible for the environment. As for the ethical argument, I don’t think it possible to change someone’s mind without having a conversation. The only thing I can respond to is your assertion that not eating meat would lead to animals roaming free and dying of natural causes, which can still be horrific. I’m assuming the animals you’re referring to are farm animals? The only reason we have so many of these animals on the planet is because we breed them to eat them. As the demand for meat decreases, so will the number of animals we breed into existence. There won’t be any need to just release them in the wild. And, not to assume that one would definitely make this argument but because I’ve seen it argued many times, it would not mean the extinction of these species either. We’re perfectly capable of keeping them in zoos or as pets. I do think they would need to stay in captivity, though, since introducing nonnative species to new environments can have disastrous effects. Also, anyone concerned about species extinction should know that animal agriculture is a leading driver of it. Which brings me to the environmental problem.
As far as what I can respond to, I’ve seen you mention that monocropping is bad. But most of those crops are being grown to feed the animals we eat :/
Honestly, I’m just going to list a bunch of facts and sources and anyone who may be reading can take it or leave it:
From http://www.onegreenplanet.org/environment/livestock-feed-and-habitat-destruction/: “ 33 percent of agricultural land worldwide is used solely for livestock feed production”
“ In the U.S., 36 percent of corn crops being used to feed livestock. Soy is also commonly used in feed, with 75 percent of global soybean crops being fed to livestock.”
“ Agriculture is responsible for a staggering 80 percent of deforestation”
All kinds of things about meat and the environment: https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/78/3/660S/4690010#109811472
This explores the evidence of meat consumption’s effect on health (which, frankly, I don’t care about) and the environment: http://science.sciencemag.org/content/361/6399/eaam5324
Here’s a disturbing letter about meat consumption’s role in antibiotic resistance: https://cdn.ewg.org/sites/default/files/testimony/EWG%2C%202018%20-%20Letter%20to%20FDA%20Antibiotic%20Resistance%20FINAL.pdf?_ga=2.15692085.2014774268.1536082053-904308369.1536082053
There’s also just an entire wikipedia page on meat and the environment that has 104 sources for anyone to browse: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_meat_production
Also feel free to google “meat environment”
I know you say you aren’t telling anyone to eat a certain way and that you won’t necessarily continue eating this way, but you are still promoting a diet that has terrible environmental consequences. I think it’s perfectly fair for people to call that out and hope that you and anyone considering following this diet decide to reduce your meat intake instead. I don’t think I’m a better person than you or anyone who eats meat, I just think that I’m making a more ethical decision when it comes to food choice. And that’s a decision that anyone can make :)