Umm I read from that link you provided and it's vegan propaganda. How is this diet natural and wholesome if a lot of foods that you're eating have to be 'fortified' with nutrients? That's not natural at all. Yeah, "sure you can go on this diet that's doesn't fill your nutritional requirements, just make sure you eat stuff that has been artificially fortified with all the good nutrients your body requires." How would you expect people in parts of the world who don't have access to these fortified foods to prosper on a vegan diet? Right, they can't. Don't try to use Indians as an example because a lot of them secretly eat meat. Plus, while they may not suffer from high obesity rates, they do have high rates of diabetes and heart disease. And they generally preform poorly in sports.
On a different note, consider this. Quinoa, which contains all of the essential amino acids, used to be the poor man's food in South America. Then one day, the white man discovers this 'super' food and starts marketing it to the masses of first-world folks. Eventually, the prices for quinoa quadruple, leaving the poor person there unable to afford their staple food and suffering health-wise because of that. How is that fair to those poor people who are now suffering because of this? How is that good for the environment? How much energy is wasted shipping those foods from far away countries to your local grocery store?
So you see there's negative aspects in regards to plant-based foods, not just meats. The Wal-Mart corporation does a lot of harm for the environment, why don't you boycott them instead of boycotting meat to feel better about yourself?
Good reasoning and logic in your post. I wouldn't say that's 'vegan propaganda' as I merely did a search on how to raise a baby as a vegan as you claimed it was not possible nor was it healthy. I simply brought up arguments that stated otherwise. The website is vegan based of course, because you wouldn't go to a website about math looking for advice on how to play sports like basketball.
What is wrong with eating fortified foods if it's better for you? Goitre used to be prevalent in the US in the 20th century, so the government decided to fortify salts with iodine and thus reduced goitre rates significantly. Fortifying foods is not new. Read my post above on why it's not necessary to eat meat when there are fortified foods that can have the same nutrients meat has. Plus do you see the prices on these, these can also save you money while improving your health.
Also I'm not saying every civilization can adapt to not eating meat, not all civilizations can support it right now. Eating meat is a worldwide accepted phenomenon but we can adapt to rise above it. What if we did stop eating meat, and instead ate meat substitutes fortified with all the nutrients that meat has? We would save up on water, energy costs, production costs, and not have to kill as many animals that takes months or years to raise. Plus these foods would be a lot easier to distribute worldwide. Real meat would still be available from farms where animals aren't treated in a cruel way.
To your comment about Quinoa farming, now
that's media propaganda. It actually turns out they set aside at least 1/10th of their quinoa farms for their own personal use and to sell the rest to the people. Also not every quinoa farmer has a deal with foreigners, small time farmers might not sell them for export for example. They are becoming richer due to the quinoa fad, plus they can help out their local people.
Plus, Quinoa can pretty much be grown anywhere. In fact, we have started growing our own Quinoa farms in the US.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/11/29/166155875/quinoa-craze-inspires-north-america-to-start-growing-its-own
