This is so on point. Well done!

I want to add the opportunity provided in shifting meat consumption from feedlots to well-managed, pastured animals. Folks like Allan Savory, Joel Salatin, and Jesse McDougal of Studio Hill in VT are revealing that animal grazing, when done correctly (called variously “management-intensive” and/or “mob grazing”) can restore degraded landscapes and rebuild soil. These methods tap into the co-evolutionary partnership of animals and grasslands, where animals would clump together in safety from predators as a “mob,” lightly till and graze the soil while simultaneously leaving behind fertilizer/compost in the form of their manure. This has the effect of rebuilding top soil over time. There is a short film called Soil Carbon Cowboys you can watch which shows how this works.

This adds an additional layer of nuance to the discussion, with a conceivable scenario in which the omnivore eating meat every other day (though still not in excess) has a diet that is actually MORE ecologically beneficial than the vegan who completely abstains from meat while still sourcing food grown through industrial monocultures. An important point that has yet to make it into the mainstream, but which I believe eventually will because it actually works, and the meat it produces is healthy and delicious.