Other than the last couple of off posts, War Angel, you clearly missed a big part of my point: Producing more meat does not feed more people. It's an assumption a lot of people make, and on the surface it's logical, but it's just not correct.

Firstly, the amount of resources it takes to produce meat, if used to feed people, would feed a lot more people than the meat itself. Like I said, if the U.S. alone reduced it's meat intake by 10% we could feed 60,000,000 more people. Already people from "rich" countries eat far larger servings of meat than nature intended (steaks at resturants are served in 8, 12, or 16 ounce portions, while a serving of meat is only 3 ounces), so why is it so awful to suggest reducing our intake to fee up some farmland to feed people?

Secondly, factory farming does not make meat cheap. Another assumption that's logical on the surface, but not true. Meat is cheap because meat farms recieve large government subsidies. The methods used to farm increase the output, yes (also increasing the amount of farm land used to feed these animals), but does not lower prices. If not for government subsidies, a McDonald's hamberger would cost at least the $11 or $13 (one of those numbers... I forget exactly) it costs to produce. In essence, we're paying for this meat with our taxes.

So it's very humanitarian for people to believe factor farming sacrifices the wellbeing of animals to feed more people, but it just isn't true.

As for vitamins, the only vitamin in jeopardy from a vegan diet is B12, which is not only found in meat, but also dairy products. Iron, protien... none others are a problem. But that is a vegan diet. No one (except PeTA, but they're crazy bastards anyway) is saying you have to go vegan. No one's saying you have to go vegetarian. Just quit eating an excess of meat!

Again, the assumptions people make about "quick and dirty farming = more cheap food for the hungry" seems logical on the surface, but if you look into it a bit you'll find it's not. One of my favorite resources on the topic is Animal Liberation by Peter Singer. The title is really out there, but it's mostly as an attention-getter and he really isn't as insane as you'd assume from the title; he even advocates meat eating and animal testing under certain circumstances.