Bestselling author and locavore star Michael Pollan recently sat down with Time magazine to answer some questions about food, the environment and health.

Pollan’s latest book, Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual, is billed as a simple and sensible set of memorable rules for eating wisely, many drawn from a variety of ethnic or cultural traditions.

During the interview, Michael is asked if he’s a vegetarian and, if not, than why. Here’s what Pollan had to say:

“I still eat meat, I’m a carnivore, but I eat a lot less meat. I’ve spent so much time on feedlots and confinement hog operations that I can’t in good conscious, and with good appetite, eat industrial feedlot meat. So I eat meat from small farms, meat I get at the farmers market, grass fed beef. And when you eat meat that way, it’s a little harder to find and it costs more money, so with the result that you don’t end up eating meat everyday. To reduce your meat consumption by 20 percent is the equivalent of trading in your gas-guzzling sedan for a Prius. So I’m all in favor of incremental steps in this matter. I have enormous respect for vegetarians and vegans because they’ve thought through the consequences of their food choices, but I think they’re good reasons to eat meat — good environmental reasons.”

We’re all for an individual’s right to make his or her own food choices, but good environmental reasons? Yikes! We don’t see it!

Check out the video below and leave a comment with your thoughts about the interview!