Most sustainable diet? Include eggs, dairy and a little meat.

According to the journal Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems, researchers at Cornell University have determined that New York state can sustainably feed more of its population on a diet high in vegetable products but including some eggs, dairy, and meat than it can on a pure vegetarian diet.

That's because fruits, vegetables and grains must be grown on high-quality cropland. Meat, eggs, and dairy are produced on lower quality but more widely available land that can support pasture and hay. A large pool of such land is available in New York state because for sustainable use, most farmland requires a crop rotation with animal food crops such as hay.

Cornell's Chronicle Online provides a layman's version of the research report.