Keeping a Nice Slim Equator

A new study from U Chicago confirms that vegetarian diets impose less of a burden on the planet:

Eshel and Martin compared the energy consumption and greenhouse-gas emissions that underlie five diets: average American, red meat, fish, poultry and vegetarian (including eggs and dairy), all equaling 3,774 calories per day.

The vegetarian diet turned out to be the most energy-efficient, followed by poultry and the average American diet. Fish and red meat virtually tied as the least efficient.

The impact of producing fish came as the study’s biggest surprise to Martin, an Assistant Professor in Geophysical Sciences. “Fish can be from one extreme to the other,” Martin said. Sardines and anchovies flourish near coastal areas and can be harvested with minimal energy expenditure. But swordfish and other large predatory species required energy-intensive long-distance voyages.

It's peculiar that the press release talks about the advantages of a vegan diet, but the study itself appears to have used a vegetarian diet as its comparison group. Also, I don't seem to have access to the original paper here. Anybody want to send it to me?

It will be interesting to see the results of their next study - a look at the efficiency of organic farms. I'd imagine that for all its evils, large-scale farming run by accountants might have so many economies of scale that its actually lower impact.