Livestock is mostly senseless for food. Think of what it takes, in pounds, to feed a cow for one year. Double it (Because normal livestock cows reproduce, then are killed) for it's two year life-span. Now think of how much food that cow will reproduce. Takes more to feed it than it will, in turn, feed.
In today's day and age there are genetically modified cows, some that produce ONLY milk and are not approved for beef sales. That means that due to cost restrictions alone the Milking cow is destroyed in a few years. And then thrown away.
Another thing I want you to consider is what "Kosher" means to an animal. During a kosher session a rabbi will oversee the slaughtering of an animal. If the animal shows any signs of pain, it will NOT be consumed. It will be thrown away. You can imagine how many animals "show pain" when they are slaughtered.
You can see with just these handful of farming costs, that raising beef cattle simple doesn't make any sense. So the government steps in with Farm Subsidizing money. So for each cow that a farm has, it's simply GIVEN $1000 or so . That's to absorb the costs of food versus how much the cow actually fetches at market. Without Farm Subsidizing Beef would push $35 per pound.
Chickens are nearly the same way - Only cheaper. Chickens are the livestock of the poor world. Feed is still an issue, and without farm Sub money, Chicken may cost $14 a pound.
Fishing, as you may know, lacks farm sub money, and thus costs an arm and a leg. People do whatever they can to keep the prices of Domestic fish below the Icelandic - Who have such strong hatcheries and oceans that they yield even 15 times that of a US fishing company. Once again, it's signficantly cheaper to import fish from Iceland than it is to buy from our own fishermen - And our fisherman is left on his own. With current market practice and US Farm money given to Fishermen, Fish may be down around $2 a pound.
Raising produce, like I did in Pennsylvania (grew up on a produce farm) Is next to bliss. The cattle farm down the road stank to high hell, was dirty and full of disease and pestilence. Produce farming is cleaner, a better lifestyle and simply more advantageous. Growing up eating Corn (Oh my god, I must have digested a truckfull of corn in my life), beets, radishes, cabbage, peppers / tomatoes / etc I think that may be why I turned out to have such a healthy rate of metabolism, being fit and thin. (5'6" and 135 lbs) Eating meat now - while it tastes great - Weighs down on me like a load of bricks. Eating vegetables simply makes me feel better.
So regardless of your religious beliefs, health concerns, or philosophy - Eating meat is also quite wasteful.
-> Steve
j/k
