Scientific research has shown that the average vegan produces much less carbon than the average meat eater. In the link below there is a graph that illustrates this. The graph expresses four time of eaters: meat, average, no beef, vegetarian, and vegans. It shows that a vegetarian diet cuts the footprint of a meat eater by almost half, and vegan is even lower. The clear answer to why this happens is because of the meat. In the second article, it expresses how cutting meat from our diets can reduce more carbon than getting rid of more cars can.  If everyone cut meat from their diets, then it would help with the carbon emission significantly. Even though it is not mentioned in the graphs, it would also reduce carbon emissions by shortening produce transportation.
If you are not interested in giving up meat, that is reasonable. I like meat a lot too so I understand. At least try to not eat red meat, and this also reduces carbon. In the graphs from the first article, it shows that the meat eater still produces quite a larger amount of carbon than the no beef eater. My perso nal experience can also testify this. I recently had to track how much carbon I consumed for my class, and I do not eat red meat. My carbon emission was a much smaller average than an average eater from my area.
Sources/Links:
http://shrinkthatfootprint.com/food-car … print-diet
https://www.theguardian.com/environment … -than-cars