Letter: Economy benefits from vegetarianism

Published 1:30 am Tuesday, June 23, 2026

Editor,

If the person you’re talking with mentions how well the economy is doing based on its GDP, you should probably be wondering whether their IQ is under 60 or their most recent brain scan showed a deteriorated prefrontal cortex.

GDP data will not tell you if the economy is operating beyond the environmental capacity that assures sustainability.

As far back as 1968, Robert F. Kennedy told us, in a speech at the University of Kansas, that measuring the economy without factoring in the negative effects of its cumulative transactions ignores essential human values. If we used GDP to correctly calculate the consequences of eating the standard American diet (without excluding the externalities), we would see a dramatic decline since the environmental and physical effects would be grossly negative.

What does an unbiased cost-benefits analysis say about our dietary choices: are they healthy, environmentally sustainable and morally defensible? The real cost of a burger is not what you pay per pound at the supermarket. You have to factor in biodiversity loss, climate change, and the unraveling of planetary ecosystems and the health effects of eating meat. The immorality of supporting factory farms needs an entirely different measurement system to highlight the depravity of choosing a diet that assumes sentient beings are products. A simple to implement change is required: choose a diet without ignored externalities. Eat a whole food plant-based diet.

Verrall Hoover

Langley