I'm convinced industrial animal agriculture will be one of the things today's society is condemned for, fifty years from now.
There is a group of vegan activists in Portland called the Cube of Truth. They hide their identity and hold up monitors on the street. If you approach and consent, they will display difficult to consume video of industrial animal practices.[1]
I commented there that "the cavalier, even gleeful use of animal products in food and and consumer goods will be a regrettable cultural wave."
[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/Portland/comments/awp0zc/vegan_papi...
In the marketplace of ideas, the criticisms of these obviously abhorrent practices simply do not get much currency. Where does the failed war on drugs rank in terms of politically important issues? How about wage slavery, student-loan-indentured servitude, or industrial meat farming?
I don't know much, but I do know that people form habits and tend to set their beliefs/wants in stone, such that they will simply overlook suffering caused by their meat eating, tough on crime stances, etc. If it stands in the way of their bacon cheeseburger, most people simply don't spare a thought for others' suffering.
As for cost, it seems intuitive that turning soy into a milk substitute would be cheaper than feeding soy to a cow and milking it if both were done on the same scale. On top of that, some countries tax substitutes higher than the products they replace. In Germany, for example, non-dairy milk has a VAT rate of 19% while dairy milk gets the reduced 7% rate for staple foods.
She in turn was banned from two far-right wing publications: The Daily Caller and The Federalist. Even twenty years ago, she would have been applauded for her reaction by the same kind of people and they would have concern-trolled for weeks about the negative reaction others might have had.