Cut the meat

Re “The cost of steak,” Opinion, Aug. 23

Paul Roberts does a terrific job of laying out the case against factory farms. I have only one complaint. He expresses concern about the rising meat prices that will accompany the return to more traditional methods of raising meat animals, but he neglects to mention the benefit: With higher prices, people will eat less meat.

Meat consumption is associated with high rates of heart disease, hypertension and colon cancer; it is a vastly less efficient means of providing food in terms of water and grain usage; and it is a huge contributor to greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

I say, let those prices soar, and pass the hummus. We’ll all be better off.

Catherine McCallum

Monrovia