Meat, Grain, and Soil

There is an article in the NY Times today , about a program that the USDA started years ago in order to keep farmers from cultivating all of there farm land. The purpose of the program was to conserve top-soil for future generations as well as protect critical habitat for a lot of wildlife. The land in the program was selected specifically because it is the most vulnerable to environmental degradation by farming.
Well, the article tells the story of how this land is rather quickly being taken out of the program and put back into agricultural production, specifically for the production of soybeans, corn, and wheat.
Why do we need more soybeans, corn, and wheat? Is it because we are feeding the hungry with it? Well, we aren't feeding hungry people with it, anyway. In fact, with the amount of grain that we grow and feed just to livestock in the United States, you could instead feed it to 800 million people. That is, we consume so much meat in this country, and export quite a surplus, that we have to use MOST of our agricultural land to grow feed for animals.
The reason farmers want to break their contracts with the conservation program is because the demand for grain has increased incredibly. This is not only due to an increase in meat consumption in the U.S., but also because of a greater population of middle class people worldwide, and they all want the diet of an American. Not only that, but because ethanol production has skyrocketed (off the very false assumption that it is good), the demand for grain is even greater.
One question I think people need to ask themselves is, are we happier? We are all somewhat stuck in the lifestyle we have grown up in to. Did you know that if you eat chicken instead of beef, you are indirectly consuming 4 times LESS grain and 10 times less water! If you choose to eat aquacultured fish instead of the chicken, you are consuming HALF the resources!

I suggest reading the article I posted a link to. Whether you are on side A or side B of a political world, environmental problems seriously interact with economic, social, and public health issues. Eventually we are all going to have to change our lifestyles somewhat. I think it is a good idea to start changing it now, to ease the burden later.
EAT LESS MEAT!