This is in response to both of your artilces. I like yourself have
been doing alot of contemplating and exploring of the lifestlyes of
vegans and vegetarians. I am neither, though I do no not eat certain
meats and seafoods or indulge in alchol or caffine substances steming
from my religious beliefs (I am Seventh-Day Adventist). One reason for
my study has been that my church does teach that the healthiest way of
living is a vegetarian based diet and I trully believe this so.

Another twist to my situation is in my field as an Environmental
Student. Being in the area that you are in you should identify with
some of the points I am about to raise. Recently I took a
Sustainablity class as an elective for my Master's Degree. My papers
for this class focused on Industrial agriculture vs sustainable
agriculture. No one would argue that agriculture is the number one
consumer of the fresh water resources and contributes siginificanlty
to water pollution and the like. But people must eat but isn't it in
the best interest of all, not just the countries that have abundance
of water resources etc(if you can find one) to find the most efficient
means of doing this. Then to add in livestock production. It was
somewhat astonishing to sit down and go through article after article
of the extra resources that must be used to support a diet that is
meat based compared to that of a vegetarian. To see how many more
people can be fed with the grain and water used to raise just one cow.

Then when I had to calculate my ecological footprint (which is the
number of acres/hectares that it takes to produce all the energy and
food to sustain my lifestyle)http://www.earthday.net/footprint/index.asp
I was totally ashamed to find out how many worlds it would take to
support the over 6 billion people on this planet if they lived like
myself.

I have cut back drastically on my meat eating (its kinda hard to go
cold turkey) and on my consumption of goods in general. The old I=PAC
(Impact= population*affluence*consumption). I may only be one person
but I do believe that that is where the whole battle of sustainablity
will be won person by person.. individual choices.

I just thought I would raise these few points for you to consider as
you continue to explore this topic.