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George MonbiotJuly 29, 2026 at 3:24 AM EDT

It's a point I've been trying to make for a long time: there is no good way to meet even 10% of current demand for animal products. They trash the living world, whichever way you do it. If you want to reduce your impact, switch to a plant-based diet. theguardian.com

There's an organic exceptionalism at work: I'm a good consumer because I eat only organic eggs / pasture-fed meat etc. In many cases these have a higher, sometimes MUCH higher, environmental impact. The worst of all farm products are organic beef and lamb. theguardian.com

We tend to exonerate ourselves by selectivity: I don't eat horrible feedlot beef! But the land use and greenhouse gas emissions from the nice-looking, grass-fed model are massively worse. We should stop looking at the pictures and start looking at the numbers. The "less and better" movement invariably means less and worse. People say "I'm not eating that factory-farmed rubbish. Instead, I'll eat less meat, eggs and milk, and from ethical sources." But those "ethical" sources tend to have a much higher environmental impact. We need to drop both. Believe me, I'd much prefer this wasn't true. It would make my job much easier. Instead I find myself fighting not just Big Meat, but also the Small Meat lobby. And this - perhaps because it seems more personal, and because people want to think they're the good guys - is often far more vicious. Those lovely folk at the Oxford Real Farming Conference or Groundswell - and in most ways they are lovely - very quickly get furious when you challenge their shibboleths. It becomes personal and unpleasant. I understand this: it's about livelihoods and identities. But we can't be held hostage by it. Oh dear, the excuses, myths and distractions I'm reading in replies. It's almost like being back on X. I've tried so hard to see this issue clearly, challenging my own beliefs, being led only by the evidence. I read 5,000 scientific papers in researching this book: penguin.co.uk

But it seems to me that most people, when it comes to food, begin with what they want to believe - my diet is right and ethical - and look for evidence to support it. I understand this: it's literally a visceral issue. But we have to try to get beyond what we want to believe, hard as that is. The thread on one page: skywriter.blue