People who make the decision to change their diets and embrace a vegan or vegetarian lifestyle do so for a number of reasons. They believe eating meat is bad for the environment and ecologically irresponsible.
Is that really true?
According to the website http://paleoleap.com/vegetarianism-bad-environment/ "the pervasive use of chemical pesticides in industrial agriculture is poisoning our food and the planet.  All the same effects are passed on to humans when we eat these plants, and this is reason enough to be wary of a “plants only” diet.
Vegan proponents point to grain production for cattle feed as the cause of deforestation, habitat loss and species extinction, but industrial agriculture involves huge mono-cultures like wheat, corn and soy. Virtually all their agricultural systems depend on crude oil, including planting, harvesting, processing, packaging, and transportation. The importance of eating locally produced meat and locally grown vegetables and fruits, when available, is huge.
Growing crops of corn, wheat or soy (which are currently all genetically modified   unless organic) where there would normally be grass destroys animals’ natural feeding grounds."
On the other hand each kcal of plant products requires 0.6 kcal fossil in comparison to each kcal of animal products that is obtained with 6.4 kcal of fossil and 5.4 kcal with vegetable products. (Source: FAO,M. Gianpietro (2002), Heller and Keoleian (2000) )
In conclusion I think that is important to find a balance between meat and vegetables.
Let me know your opinion :-)

My name is Jack from North Carolina, I agree with you that we should find a balance in our diets of plants and meats.  It could be hard for some people change their diets.  Do you think it would be hard for you to change?

ಠ_ಠ  My name is William from North Carolina.  I agree with you we should find a balance between meats, vegetables, and fruits.

I am Warren from North Carolina, and I agree with you and Jack. I feel like a balance between plant and animal consumption is very necessary.

I agree with you. I think that there isn't to eat only meat and only plants. I think that we must do a balance between the meat and plants.

I believe that becoming a vegan or a vegetarian is more of a lifestyle choice than a statement against any meat consumption, Although there are pestacides used to clean fruits and vegetables, there is a fair amount of carbon emissions that come from meat production. According to (http://www.greeneatz.com/foods-carbon-footprint.html)  the top six foods which emit the most carbon (with the exception of cheese) are all meats. So, actually, a more vegetable based diet would be helpful towards reducing one's carbon footprint.

Hi Jack, I think that finding a balance between meat and vegetables is quite difficult but not impossible and so I'm going to change a bit my diet :-)

Hi, I'm Gracie from North Carolina, and I agree that it is very important to find a balance between meats and vegetable, and if can also be very difficult for people to change their diet, especially me.  So I'm going to try and slightly alter my diet as well.

I am encouraged by all of the pledges here to try to find a balance and improve your dietary footprints! The best way to do this is little by little, that way you learn how to get proper nutrition from new foods.  Good luck you all!

Although I appreciate your argument that plant production is also not exactly perfect for the environment, I think there are a lot of benefits to a plant-based diet that you are neglecting. However, it is true that it is hard for people to change their diets, and meat is a good source for many nutrients such as protein, that we need to survive. I suggest just giving up beef or dairy products as a start, which is not only good for the environment but is proven to lower cholesterol intake. According to Smithsonian, livestock based food production causes about one fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions. Researchers from Yale, Brad College, and the Weizmann Institute of Science recently released a paper which helps to break down into figures exactly how both consumers and producers in the livestock industry can reduce their footprint. In total beef production added up to five times as much emissions. Finally when they calculated the same thing for staple crops, rice, wheat, and potatoes required two to six times less resources than pork, chicken, eggs, or dairy. You also s poke about the use of pesticides in agriculture, however, I think you are forgetting that in order to feed animals we first have to grow plants that use these same pesticides. Plenty of hazardous chemicals are used in other areas of meat production too, medicines, steroids, sterilizers, chemicals used to clean housing areas and many other things. Next you spoke about how much crude oil is used in the production of plants, however, according to The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the production of one calorie of animal protein requires over ten times the amount of fossil fuel input as a calorie of plant protein. You say that each crop for plants is taking away natural feeding grounds for animals, but if crops weren't there and we still needed the same amount of food animal production facilities would take up the same space. Building off of that, according to Smithsonian, seven football fields worth of land is bulldozed every minute to create more room for farmed animals and the crops that feed them. According to "The Global Benefits of Eating Less Meat" by Mark Gold and Jonathon Porritt, the world's cattle alone consume a quantity of food equal to the caloric needs of 8.7 billion people, more than the entire human population on Earth. Just by changing from an omnivorous diet to a vegan one, a human can prevent 1.5 tonnes of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere which is 50% more than if you had changed your regular car to a toyota prius. As a final note, I would like you to consider the fact that if the livestock industry was completely eliminated, world hunger would be over. It takes up to 16 pounds of grain to produce one pound of meat. In the US, 70% of grain grown is fed to animals on feedlots. I'm not saying that everyone should become vegan, because in many cases that is not possible, but if at all stop eating beef.