Why is not eating meat/dairy "one of the best things we can do personally"?

Because land-use change is a leading cause of climate change, and most land-use change is happening to grow and harvest animals. Add on top of that the monoculture crops are also largely grown to feed animals, and those monocultures also drive climate change.

Eating a plant based diet is great, but even switching to locally raised, pasture grown animals can be a positive. But ultimately pastures need to be re-wilded into natural forests. Beef needs to become an expensive luxury and not a dietary staple.

Agree about beef becoming an expensive luxury, but Oxford and CSIRO etc scientists have shown that pasture grown animals are worse for climate change. Sequestration doesn't cover their emissions... http://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2017-10-03-grass-fed-beef-good-or-b...

Producing meat consumes a lot of resources. Especially if its beef.

https://i.imgur.com/JAMsYHk.gif

Why constraint yourself voluntarily instead of simply paying co2 tax? If meat production hurts climate, let’s just make it expensive (not the meat itself, but the process which produces co2) and let free market work towards stopping climate change.

Maybe you don’t eat meat but instead buying something else which hurts climate 20 times more? Nobody knows.