vegetarianism is not the answer. Monsanto is one of the evilest companies on earth and they control most soy production (I say this because many vegetarians eat a lot of tofu).
It's about understanding the source and making good choices. Eat grass-fed, antibiotic-free beef (these two things virtually guarantee you're not supporting the concentrated feedlots) and free range chicken. Eat non-GMO vegetables that are locally grown and in season. It's about supporting the right suppliers, which thankfully exist for all parts of the omnivore spectrum.
First, vegetarianism is not synonymous with soy eating.
Second, the majority of soy is used to feed food animals (even grass-fed, which generally does not count how the animals are "finished").
Fourth, free range is a joke. Sure there are some farmers that give their animals a decent life. But labels like free range and cage free are not well regulated and give you no real guarantee of anything. Please do some research on what is actually involved in these kinds of claims, which are essentially marketing.
Finally, jayfuerstenberg said he/she was moving closer to vegetarianism due to the mistreatment of animals. Don't reply to that by saying vegetarianism is not the answer because it is in this case.
Or just eat pastas, lentil based dishes, vegetable curries, soups, or even supplement meat with texturized vegetable protein for faux meat pies, bolognese etc. I'm a meat eater and can't tell the difference.
The vegetarians I know don't eat tofu very often, and would rather eat tofu potentially produced by a notorious company than eat an animal.
Didn't down-vote you BTW, just thought I'd chime in because I know a few veggos, including my wife. It's not bad food I can assure you.
As a now grain farmer who grew up on a dairy farm, what I find more concerning is all of the crazy synthetic and mined resources we have to pour onto the fields in the absence of animals in order to be able to meet the world's demand for food.
Our production of "vegetarian food" grew up with the idea of having animals as part of rotation, but with the decline in demand for most meat varieties, economics do not allow those animals to be part of the cycle anymore.
Vegetarianism may be a solution for the long term society, but it seems like we have a lot of technical challenges to overcome in the meantime. Right now it looks like we are just trading one problem for another.
If anything, where there's been a slight reduction in one area of consumption (e.g. beef) there's been an increase in another (poultry) with an overall rise in meat consumption.
> economics do not allow those animals to be part of the cycle anymore
Given the incredible size of modern farms, using animals as a source of fertilizer is no longer practical. Meat consumption isn't really part of the equation - livestock require food themselves, so you'd need to grow huge sums just to feed the animals as well as produce enough grain/vegetables for human consumption. If you can artificially produce fertilizer then you remove this bottleneck.
Smaller farms would allow animals to be part of the rotation.
I live in Japan and generally avoid buying any food from the US. My beef comes from Australia and vegetables mostly from Western Japan (as far from Fukushima as possible).
It's not cheap but it's better than supporting Monsanto and factory farms in general.
The free-range and grass-fed stuff is far too nuanced (and expensive) by itself to put an end to or even reduce the rivers of blood and mountains of skulls that are the output of industrial factory farms. What will stop it? environmental legislation? Ending farm subsidies?
This will only drive me further down that path.