Letters to the Editor
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@dm8877
As Alkaline said, there is not enough grazing land for all the livestock we now have, unless you want to devote almost all grassland to their use (but that would exclude chickens and other birds). But then, you'd still have problems with the fuel used to transport and process the animals, the water used to keep them alive, and the methanol produced by billions of cattle that, despite the fart humor, really does add to global warming.
The flip side is that raising animals in the outdoors and letting them graze would rid the world of the horrors of factory farming, (though the horrors of slaughterhouses would continue), but this would raise the price of meat to what it really ought to be if we cared about raising animals in a humane and sustainable fashion, i.e., a price which many people would not be willing to pay, which would be a good thing if that was there only alternative.
The fact of the matter is that vegetarianism is a more environmentally sustainable diet, not to mention less expensive and healthier and more compassionate. The other fact of the matter is that I expect our species to extinguish itself long before it seriously contemplates moving to vegetarianism.