In reply to winhill:
"The people who endorsed the Four Ns were more likely to be men."
""People love animals and are genuinely concerned about them. But they also eat meat so there's a paradox here and we were interested in finding out how people resolve it," he says. "We think that the Four Ns are a way to alleviate feelings of guilt."
http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/diet-and-fitness/meat-eaters-justify-diet-u...
Meat production, in it's current forms, is unsustainable for a growing global population.
Much meat production involves an unacceptable level of cruelty to a sentient being.
The dairy industries waste huge amounts of water and produce a lot of pollution.
Most people don't need more calories or protein - they need less. Obesity is rampant in the west, and growing in developing nations.
Most of the arguments against veganism, or for-meat, ('evolution', lack of protein etc) are fallacious and outdated.
Doug Scott did some of his hardest climbs as a vegetarian, since the mid 1970s.
The small Australian team that climbed a new route on the north face of Everest without bottled oxygen in 1984 all did so as vegetarians.
No one's weekend walk in the Lakes would be adversely affected by 48hrs without meat, nutritionally and physiologically speaking.
I am not a vegan. I am a cattle farmer.