Vegetarianism may not be the answer

September 24, 2025

Julian Cribb writes that a “vegetarian diet…may yield fewer greenhouse emissions, but may also cause greater soil erosion, use more pesticides and is highly vulnerable to climate”. He argues for a move away from traditional farming production to regenerative farming, urban food, and deep ocean aquaculture.

It is hard not to panic about the prospect of sea-level rise which the World Economic Forum warns is a global threat. It notes that the Greenland ice sheet is “at a tipping point of irreversible melting" and that one to two metres of sea-level rise this century is unavoidable.

This means inundation of many food-growing deltas of the world, such as the Mekong. The implications for food security are horrendous unless we adopt other means of producing food.

Meat-eating has its downside, not least with the animal justice aspects of factory-farming, and methane-producing ruminants. Nevertheless, there are vast amounts of the planet that are unsuitable for the plough, but make perfectly good pasture. Animals are very good at turning inedible grasses into edible food, namely meat. And for many cultures, like the Masai, meat is central to their diet. Who are we to tell them to be farmers, not pastoralists?