My point is that it has other costs and externalities that are both unique to its production such as an inherent loss of life with meat production that is easily preventable by accurately gauging how much you ' ll eat . As far as waste of land , water etc . is concerned It seems to me that this is , again , is just waste . But you admit that these externalities should be taken into account . However , in most places , they aren ' t . Many farming industries are even subsidized in some regard making it cheaper to ignore these costs . Emissions aren ' t accounted for . Water is cheaper than it should be and it ' s value isn ' t taken into account for how much certain products consume . Loss of life is a cost that would obviously vary from person to person . Can you give other common forms of waste ? Because you ' re comparing it to waste in general isn ' t fruitful without specific qualities . My overall point is that food production is actually a combination of many different forms of waste , many of which are externalities and thus not properly accounted for . And not only this , but it ' s wasting something that can ' t really be recycled in the same way physical products can .