Vegetarianism
British nineteenth-century proponents of vegetarianism had high hopes for their movement. They tended to see themselves as on the side of history, in the vanguard of moral ___ 31 ___. In their imagined future, meat eating would be seen as being as barbarous as slavery, racism, and homophobia.
Government data suggests that no more than 2 to 3 percent of the population eschews meat, while groups with a vested interest bump this up to roughly 5 percent. Yet, whatever measure you use, it is clear the number of vegetarians has not been rising over recent decades on either side of the Atlantic. ___ 32 ___, studies suggest that anything between 50 and 84 percent of those who give up meat eventually go back to being carnivores.
When I became a "sort of" vegetarian 25 years ago, vegetarianism was the only practical alternative to cruelly, intensively reared animal products. But as interest in animal welfare has increased, it has become much easier to buy products certified free-range or organic.
Furthermore, while growing animal feed on viable arable land is wasteful, it makes good sense to graze animals on pastures not ___ 33 ___ to crops edible by humans and to use by-products of the human food chain to fatten livestock. And to leave all the fish in the sea would be to deprive ourselves of an invaluable resource.
In turn, the health evidence ___ 34 ___ some, but much less, meat eating: the consensus among dieticians is that the optimal human diet contains relatively small amounts of animal protein and fat.
The vegetarian movement has done society a great ___ 35 ___ by putting important issues on the agenda. But the most sensible conclusion to draw is that we ought to eat fewer, better-reared animal products. Arguably, in my view, the future belongs not to vegetarians and vegans but to discerning "flexitarians" and conscientious omnivores.
JULIAN BAGGINI, NEW STATESMAN