No need to start getting fanatical, moderation is the key, right?
Moderation sounds like the way to go, but unfortunately, there is nothing moderate about current agricultural practices. According to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the ratio of energy inputs (ie. fossil fuel) to protein outputs is 40:1 for beef and 57:1 for lamb. Also, it takes about 100 times more water to produce a kg of animal protein than a kg of grain protein. Forests are cut down not just to provide grazing land, but to provide cropland to grow the food to feed the animals we later eat. It’s hard to equate moderation with such ecologically unsustainable practices.
