Is world-wide vegetarianism possible?

I think both pieces by Coffin and Fox had wonderful, interesting, and motivating ideas. I never knew half of the impact cattle-grazing and the meat industry had on the environment. I knew most of the conditions of the cattle or other animals may not be top notch, but I didn’t realize the horrible impact the meat industry, and the meat eaters themselves, are having on the environment. What I found most moving was the fact that half of the world’s grain is fed to livestock, while millions of Americans go hungry. Also, the amount of grain that is grown to be fed to animals could feed over 400 million vegetarian humans for a whole year! What I find most interesting is that these facts are so unknown to the population. Although I found these facts moving, and certainly important, I do not see this information making any kind of significant impact on the ways of the people throughout the world, for two reasons: (1) no one really knows all of these facts, and (2) the small number that do, either don’t care enough to change, or if they do change, don’t make enough of a difference to matter. By this I mean that, if I let my father and brothers read this article, they would say, “that’s horrible.” Then go make a steak dinner. They wouldn’t change their ways simply because the grain that was fed to that cow, could have fed many more humans. And although I find this incredibly interesting and I do care, I am probably still going to eat my turkey sandwich.
Therefore, I propose that although the information giving, and calling on people to change their eating patterns may influence some (very few) people to change, I think in order to make an impact that’s worth while there needs to be major changes in regulations and laws. For this reason, I don’t see it working. Unless the government forbade any meat to be sold in supermarkets, enough people are not going to become vegetarians. They simply will not change, unless they are motivated enough by society, or unless they are forced to by the government. And frankly, there is too much money in the meat industry for the government to enforce vegetarianism on all of America. So therefore, if it is up to our own individual choice to become a vegetarian, even given all of the wonderful reasons presented in these two pieces, sadly,I don’t see it ever happening.