Consuming sustainably raised meat is obviously a much more direct way to effect the market than to send your money to the vegetable market. To revisit the democracy analogy, it would be like moving to Canada and voting for a PM who opposes the current administration, rather than staying here and voting against it. Sure it will have an effect, but how direct? My dollars spent on local sustainable farms have exponentially more impact on meat production than those who never purchase meat.

Everyday at work I bring in my own lunch. It's typically made up of a burger from a local cattlewoman who raises grass-fed Scottish Longhorns, a salad made up of greens I've grown or purchased at the farmers market, and cheese or yogurt from a local organic dairy farm. I have two colleagues in the office who are vegetarian. Their typical lunch is a salad from the local Mini-mart or one of those vegetarian subs from Subway. Who's doing more to reform food production?

Almost every vegetarian I know has little if any interest in where their vegetables come from or the impact their food acquisitions have, but instead feel that the most important choice is a choice against meat, rather than for sustainable farms. I'm concerned they are becoming part of the problem. Choosing vegetables exclusively over meat is no solution. Buying a salad from a gas station or chain restaurant seems much more problematic to me than enjoying a free-range burger, chicken leg, or sausage. The best and most successful sustainable farms raise both vegetables and livestock. Chickens in your vegetables groom for pests and their poop is high in nitrogen, pigs are extreamly efficient at processing almost all the waste a sustainable farm produces, and both pigs and cows provide rich manure replacing the need for petro-based fertilizers, while effectively addressing the issue of topsoil erosion.

I know this is much easier to do when you live in the country, as I do, and have neighbors who farm. But it isn't impossible for urban dwellers. Yes, it takes effort and expense, but the repercussions are enormous. If you can't do it all yourself, delegate and cooperate. Become active in your local food co-op. Visit a farm and establish a relationship. Use Craigslist to organize food buying groups and find sustainable markets. Network. This is exactly the kind of challenge the Internet seems tailored to address. Disintermediate food production.

One of the most important points I've taken from Michael Pollan's writing is that once we domesticated an organism, we have a responsibility to it. I would argue that most vegetarians are neglecting that responsibility. Not just to the animals that we've domesticated, but also to the plants. Vegetarianism's logical conclusion is the extinction of these animal species and that seems like an unacceptable shirking of our responsibility. The goal is not to end farming. The goal is to change it. Becoming a vegetarian changes you significantly but does little for these animals or to change these practices. It's simply choosing not to vote or to vote somewhere else.