Hmm. This former vegan says being a locavore is much better for the planet than being a vegetarian, and better for your health, too. Pretty interesting piece.
This is the same position taken by my local urban farm: It’s better to buy local food than far-away organic. Discuss!
I haven’t read her book, but from the interview, I think she’s making three points. First, agriculture of all kinds is killing the earth, not just animal agriculture. Yet we must eat. Second, vegetarianism, and especially veganism, can be (unless practiced very, very carefully) bad for your health. We’re omnivores. Third, these acts are no more virtuous than, say, buying a Prius. It’s not the individual acts of American liberals that will save the world; to do that we must be legion.
But I got the sense that she believes, as I do, that even the measures she proposes are just so many fingers in the dike. We’re running out of everything, fish, fresh water, timber, arable land. We’re out of cheap oil. Last I heard, the earth’s population is getting close to seven billion. Small, sustainable farms can feed a few, and maybe more, for a couple of generations. But seven billion?
Merciless, you included this point, and it struck me –a lot– as important:
Yes, jawbone. The establishment hates and fears leftist thought, and always has, because it’s disruptive. My feeling is that the left has been beaten down almost to death (and thanks, Mr. Obama, for finishing the job!). In desperation, affluent leftists hope that buying a light bulb or going to the farmer’s market is saving the earth. Modern marketing channels our desire for change into, what else, more consumption.
I don’t know the answer to this.