James McWilliams: “The Myth of Sustainable Meat”

The Michael Pollans and Joel Salatins of the food movement are gonna freak when they see James McWilliams’ new op-ed. Its conclusion is gold—these are words I never dreamed would one day be printed in the New York Times:

Opponents of industrialized agriculture have been declaring for over a decade that how humans produce animal products is one of the most important environmental questions we face. We need a bolder declaration. After all, it’s not how we produce animal products that ultimately matters. It’s whether we produce them at all.

This is probably the strongest challenge to meat production, be it factory farmed or free-range, that the Times has ever published.

I would love to see somebody from the locavore meat trade offer up a point-by-point rebuttal. I’m not sure a credible one can be made.

Five or ten years from now, what’s commonsense to vegans may become the dominant viewpoint: that, all things being equal, vegan diets offer the smallest enviornmental footprint, and the greatest sustainability.

As far as I’m concerned the New York Times has at long last made amends for its infamous Nina Planck piece from 1997. Link.

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