Freezer you're an idealist. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it's a bad thing, it's actually a good thing. But your argument sucks. End of story, flat out, it sucks. People are what I would say, inherently evil in many ways. Greed, glory, and God(s) (of all sorts, shapes, religions) shape the structure of mankind. Most people are greedy and want the best for themselves and screw the rest, some are the exact opposite, and somewhere in the middle are the ones that will try and help but don't want to be left out in the cold either. Glory and God(s) are the other two motivators but I'm not even going to start discussing them in this post.
Greed. You have the United States as an example. Since the introduction of the United States from WWII on it has been a global super power with its hands in every cookie jar around the world increasing its power and worth. With that it has also increased its population to now over 300 million people. 300 million freezer, think about that. Even if twenty percent of the population were strictly veggie that would still leave 240 million meat eaters. Do you think there is a way to raise that much meat without the giant farms?
Yes, there are.
But those ways cost money and no one wants to spend more money then they have to. I go to costco and buy my meat whole sale, six pounds of ground beef, six to eight steaks, eight to twelve pork chops, sixteen to twenty-two boneless skinless chicken breast at a time. Those range from $15-38 (US) a piece and I can only afford to buy one at a time right now because I'm not anywhere near a "comfortable" American income.
Now if I suddenly started seeing an extra dollar or two a pound then I wouldn't be able to buy it hardly at all. And with that problem comes what lies across the globe in other nations were meat, vegetables, even water, are hard to come by. People in Africa eat dirt because their bodies are compelled to for the daily iron intake (which is provided by red meat and some vegatables). Now can I play a youtube.com clip of the starving kids in Africa next to yours and see who gets more sympathy?
I'm not saying that animals are not without compassion, and I believe that they should not be treated badly or hurt. But I also believe that the needs of man, woman and child come before the needs of the animals. Increasing the price of meat hurts people across the globe. Including a painkiller for every animal to be branded, castrated, clipped, etc. would increase the price insanely. Rehabilitating animals that were on their way to the slaughter house because they were in a truck accident is like having the medical kit in the death chamber at a prison incase the prisioner has a heart attack before his lethal injection, stupid and waste money.
I could keep going but I am a little tired and a little drunk and feel like I haven't connected the dots with a perfectly straight line so please, read between the lines/dots... eh, hell... you know what I mean folks. The usual rant from me.