They do have a valid point. The conversion of vegetable matter into meat or dairy products is a very inefficient process. The conversion rate for feed input to meat output varies hugely depending on the type of animal and the production system but ranges from about 4:1 to 25:1 with an average of about 10:1.
The production of meat is also a very big user of diminishing water resources and is responsible for large emissions of greenhouse gases, especially methane and nitrous oxide.
Plainly, if all the world moved to a vegetarian or vegan diet there would be advantages for climate change, mitigation and food availability; but this is not going to happen anytime soon. On the contrary, the people in developing countries are increasing meat consumption as they become more prosperous. Although levels of meat consumption per capita are still way below North America and Europe, the number of people involved is huge and this is starting to have a big impact on world food stock levels and grain prices. The result may be that as millions become more prosperous and eat more meat there will be less grain available for the really poor.
The one way that meat production has a beneficial effect, is the grazing of fragile soils that would not be suitable for arable crops. Done correctly this adds greatly to total world food supply. Unfortunatly however, overpopulation leading to overgrazing is causing soil degredation and desertification in many areas.
A sensible balance would be to encourage more vegetarianism with the rest of us eating less meat and more vegetable protien using legume crops such as beans and peas. These crops do not need nitrogen fertiliser and improve the yield of the following wheat crop. Using more legume crops would reduce the total fossil fuel inputs in to farming which will be very important in a future of energy shortages.
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