Recent findings suggest that a flexitarian that eats chicken and fish but avoids eggs and dairy has a lower carbon impact than a vegetarian. So the water ain't that wet, it turns out.

I can't find the exact aricle I'm basing that off, but, if you go down to the stacked bar graph on this page:

http://shrinkthatfootprint.com/food-carbon-footprint-diet

You can see that the Dairy component of the No Beef diet is greater than the difference between it and the Vegetarian diet.