Meat, cheese and eggs have the highest carbon footprint. Fruit, vegetables, beans and nuts have much lower carbon footprints.
In my opinion all of them are serious problems that need some kind of solving.
Figures from the Environmental Working Group’s Meat Eater’s Guide and the EPA’s Guide to Passenger Vehicle Emissions show that rice is ranked on 10th position out of 16 and it has a 2.7 CO2 Kilos Equivalent and a 6 Car Miles Equivalent.
I'm not saying it's a net positive or negative. But, for the most part, the cattle aren't raised as responsibly as possible, and beyond that, the benefits aren't accounted for. We can do better without vilifying meat.
I say this as I cannot handle legumes and am very diabetic. I just cannot handle protein sources that are higher in carbohydrate, or refined proteins from legumes (which is most vegetable protein). I do well on mostly eggs, meat and some cruciferous veg. And even eggs, I sometimes have issues with soy fed.