David Katz, M.D.: The Truth About Red and Processed Meats

Raising feed animals comes at a very high environmental cost. As Michael Jacobson and colleagues point out in "Six Arguments for a Greener Diet", it takes roughly seven lbs of corn to grow one pound of beef; five times as much water to grow feed grains for cattle as to grow fruits and vegetables for ourselves; and roughly ten times the acreage to raise cattle for food as to raise comparable plant food calories for direct human consumption.