Rising veganism in the west has a downside | Letters

Readers weigh up the pros and cons of adopting a vegan diet to ease the food-producing pressures on our planetIsabella Tree is misguided in thinking veganism encourages the eating of "industrially grown" crops (If you want to save the world, veganism isn't the answer, 25 August, Journal). In reality veganism reduces the eating of such crops, as those are exactly what are fed to livestock at the density current in Britain. The amount of soya fed to the average cow to produce a litre of milk is several times that used to produce a litre of soya milk, so switching to soya milk reduces demand for soya imports. Only once consumption of meat, dairy and eggs falls below a quarter of current levels need she worry about impacts on her kind of farming.Even then the kind of animals that she farms might find a niche outside being farmed. I have no idea whether she sells the meat of her Exmoor ponies for human consumption, but the excessively meat-eating majority include plenty who would refuse it. Cat and dog meat is not generally eaten in Britain, but it still has those animals. Continue reading...