But why buy meat at all? In terms of efficiency and "feeding the world" the cow lags behind quite seriously compared to that other GMO soya
EDIT: I'm a vegetarian. I'm well aware there are nutrients that are harder to get on purely plant-based diets, but it's far from impossible. I'm getting my Omega 3s (all DHA and EPA, not merely ALA) from algae, and my B-12 from plant sources, too.
What am I missing by not killing sentient things for sustenance?
I'm sensitive to the moral issues involved, and understand the arguments against eating pigs and cows; however, I think it's reasonably ethical, and biologically optimal, to at least eat fish and eggs. And no matter what, farm animals should be raised humanely (pasture farms, not factory farms).
The last food-animal-related health problems I heard of were multiple different bird and pig flu varieties, the last major problem with cattle was BSE/Jakob-Creutzfeld disaster years ago. So I think the cost of perfectly fine, but "preventively killed" animals should be weighed in, too.
TL;DR: It is extremely difficult to sustain the needs of a child with a pure vegetarian/vegan diet.
Tripe. I think people forget that even with the naive diet pyramids a lot of us grew up with, eggs (rightly) were counted as meats. It's been well understood for a long time how to function without eating meat, as in, the flesh of animals, if you have eggs available as part of your diet.
Pure veganism requires some actual thought, yes.
So really, meat is wholly replaceable in the human diet, though doing so in children may be difficult.
It's not the product, is the producer. The perverse incentives in our meat and farming industries drive production of a vasty inferior product at an unsustainable price.