I've only read a few of the posts above but here's my take on veganism.
You will die without animal derived vitamin K. If you don't take supplements then you need to not wash your veg so that the bugs and grubs you thus consume provide it for you. Most of our farmland is unsuitable for vegetable production. We could provide UK grown vegan food for a tiny and privileged section of society.
Vegetarian life expectancy is similar to that of an omnivore but veggies tend to be more cautious in life, taking fewer risks which artificially adds to their lifespan.
Once you reach retirement age the prospects for omnivores is considerably better than that of veggies in terms of health and length of life.
A vegan society will be less productive in areas such as technology because much longer is spent eating just to get enough calories. Less time is left for work and thought.
Meat tastes good! Why make your life less enjoyable?
Farm animals only exist so we can eat them but they none the less produce fertiliser to nourish crops.
We, as a species, are relatively hairless. This is because we are an aquatic ape. If you need to suvive don't go to the plains of Africa, go to the seaside, which has a natural call to humans anyway. Plenty of animal and vegetable food is available on the coast. It's easy to aquire and will give you a long life expectancy, like the Japanese, who live the longest of all with their sea based diet. In a survival situation vegetarians and vegans will become malnourished and die first. Omnivores can survive indefinitely, especially near the sea, of course.
King prawn curry tonight. I'm going to an "Indian" (Bangladeshi) restaurant and object to Halal slaughter. It's barbaric. Should be banned but Cameron said it was not open to discussion.
Veggies often say that if you had to kill it yourself you wouldn't eat it. Not true in my case. I've killed (quickly), cooked and eaten many times.
