I hate these little slacktivist initiatives. What, exactly, is making a vaguely inconvenient alteration to one's lunch supposed to do for "the environment"? I swear, if people spent half the mental energy on critical thinking and directed action as they do on figuring out "what's the literal least I can do and still feel sanctimonious?", they might actually bring about some change.

Things like this make me glad to be self-employed. If only I could get my boss to stop sexually harassing me :(

As far as food production goes pastured animals are a net gain for the environment. There is essentially infinite solar energy available, that grows the grass humans can't eat, the cows/sheep/goats turn that grass into ideal nutrition for humans, while simultaneously leaving inputs (read poop) to enrich the ground they graze on so there will be even more grass to graze on in the future.

Cows give back nutrients, grains and annual veggie crops primarily take them away, and require petrochemical fertilizers to replenish the soil unless it is a carefully managed organic farm with proper crop rotation. Your pastured steak would look a lot less sinister to me than the other guys vegetarian lasagna.

Read The Vegetarian Myth by Lierre Keith. You can look inside it on Amazon.

Joel Salatin would be the man with the plan, check out Food Inc. if you haven't seen it. Grain production is killing the earth and produces multitudes more pollution than naturally raised animals do. Too late to find references, just what I've learned in my own research.

Oh dear. How tragic. How can they force you to do anything when you would get hounded if it were reveresed and you insisted the veggie heads ate meat for "at least one meal a day"

Start your research...

http://www.utne.com/Environment/Eating-Meat-for-the-Environment.aspx

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2024133,00.html

http://www.newscientist.com/blog/shortsharpscience/2007/10/eat-little-meat-good-for-your-brain-and.html

Better still - argue why being a vegetarian is both bad for the environment and for your health!

http://paleodietlifestyle.com/vegetarianism-bad-environment/

Seconding Salatin. Check out this article:

In the time his family has stewarded their farmland, they have actively regenerated its pastures, creeks and forests using forethought and intelligent design, with a heavy focus on animal systems' ability to build topsoil and boost nutrients and diversity when used correctly.

http://www.ceres.org.au/node/1638

From Centre for Education and Research in Environmental Strategies which seems to be in Australia. Looks like their site might be a good one to poke around for some more info.