> What about the gigantic consumption of water this implies?

The water isn't destroyed. It goes right back into the ecosystem. The planet surface is 70% water. We aren't running out of water.

> how many people could we feed? The US could probably feed the entire world with meat, with unlimited energy / $$. People going hungry is not a food production problem, it's an economic and logistic problem. If we use plant based food, we could probably feed 3X the world problem (or use 1/3rd the land). World hunger isn't caused by lack of productive land.

Your other point on meat requires more land use and energy than plant food is correct.