Upvoting because of your honesty, not your position. The reason you can't reduce meat consumption, in spite of data, is because you don't want to. It's selfish but at least it's honest.

I think a lot of people make choices in spite of data to the contrary. We fly on planes, buy plastic junk from Amazon overseas and replace electronics like they are going out of style. We're burning energy to have digital money and we focus on paper straws. I've done all of these things in the last year (except flying, but only because of the pandemic, not the environment).

I play with my sliders all the time; I'm just not willing to slide so far in one direction that I give up my heritage.

I challenge you to evaluate your own life choices with an equally critical lens.

Thank you for the polite discourse.

Appreciate your honesty from my personal question. I worked with a woman a few years ago who said she was interested in reducing her meat consumption but reasoned that her dad was from Texas and loved to grill so, because of that, she could never stop eating it. I’m puzzled by her thought process but it seems to explain some kind of internal need to maintain identity- and, I guess, culture.

Consider asking the Japanese to no longer eat fish or seafood. It's possible, but the Japanese would lose a big part of their identity.

I understand the point. I’m from the Midwest in the US. Corn everywhere. Cows everywhere. My family drank cow’s milk and ate meat at every single meal. It was something deeply ingrained in the culture I grew up in. This also basically went along with the norms of my heritage. I no longer eat meat or drink milk but I don’t feel any less connected to my heritage and culture. It’s different for everyone.