Oh, sure, it’s just one study, and, yeah, if you have a tenth of a brain, it’s obvious that comparing the most processed types of plant food to meat isn’t really a decent comparison — it’s a poor study and easily rebuked by even the dimmest sprout-munching hippie. But I don’t care, I’m enjoying my moment of schadenfreude.
But, here’s the thing. People, at least sane, normal, people, don’t want to just eat lettuce they grow in their backyard. We are omnivores by evolution, and that means we want, and crave, meat! Even if for ethical or health reasons (correctly or incorrectly), we choose to let our forebrain overrule that primal desire to sink our teeth into a haunch of something that used to be running around, we will crave something close — fake meat, in other words, or highly processed vegetable matter. So as a matter of practicality, a major shift by the population to a vegetarian, or mostly vegetarian, diet can only occur if the craving for flesh can be sated by fake flesh — and that imposes environmental costs, as does everything.
(I actually like tofu, which is my deep and secret shame.)