Is eating cheese as bad for animals and the planet as eating meat?

Bravo for having given up eating meat! But in the ninth of our 12 Days of Culture, might we suggest giving up cheese and going back to chicken – for ethical reasons?

coldsnowstorm/Getty

By Graham Lawton

Earlier this year, my wife alerted me to a meme that was doing the rounds on social media. A 1950s-style family is sitting around the dinner table. “How do you know if someone’s vegan?” asks the little girl. “Don’t worry,” answers the dad. “They’ll tell you.”

It was a gentle dig at both of us; we gave up eating meat in January and have been banging on about it ever since. We’re not even vegetarian, let alone vegan. We still eat fish and dairy, and we buy meat for our two teenage …