Sustainable Agriculture Through Vegetarianism

Greetings from Savvy Veg,

We have lots of visitors, thanks to Editor Harlan Weikle shoving us out in the blogosphere, but nobody's asked for advice in a while. I like to think they're finding what they need in the indexed advice letters
Or maybe vegging isn't their thing.

Anyway, I took the time to write an article about something that's been on my mind - sustainable ag thru veggieness. Here's the intro:

If vegetarianism were common, agriculture would be effortlessly and automatically sustainable.

How? Most food grown would be organic and non-GMO, and much more food would be locally grown, rather than imported and trucked thousands of miles – those things tend to be important to vegetarians. Processed food would be reduced, because optimum vegetarian nutrition comes from whole foods in their natural state, and most vegetarians are interested in a healthy diet. So, much of the energy that goes into producing, packaging, warehousing and transporting processed food would be saved.

Vegetables and grains need much less land and water than animals, so it wouldn't be necessary to destroy rain forests or irrigate arid land, or create deserts with over pasturing. Perhaps just enough animals could be raised to satisfy the ovo-lacto vegetarians, and those few people who haven't quite made the vegetarian transition, but even they would consume far less meat, for the sake of their health.

Reading through various articles and books on sustainability, I've noticed that this concept isn't necessarily obvious to a lot of sustainable ag experts, mainly because they aren't vegetarian, and can't picture agriculture without lots of animals. They are reluctant to be associated with what they regard as a fringe group of cranks, eccentrics and wierdos. In other words, they can't think outside their meat-eating box.

Read Sustainable Agriculture Through Vegetarianism