Greg Patrick,
Scanning through the new vegan forum here and noticing your obvious desire for factual, scientific information rather than anecdotal and managed presentations that conveniently ignore/manipulate important points and facts.
Thank you for your presence here as far as I can tell. I grew up on a ranch in Montana, got a B.S. in Agronomy and eventually found a vegan lifestyle after many hard questions and skepticisms like yourself. I always appreciated those who gave me well supported answers along the way. I visited the Farm Sanctuary in central New York and although their literature, unfortunately, had some problems (which I dialogued with them over), I did find a mass of undeniable facts that I had to grapple with. Not advocating their cause or literature - they could very well still have problems - but it happened to be an occasion when someone took the time to prepare something with decent support and I appreciated that. Definitely a big fan of honesty and the scientific method.
People often grow to really dislike my lines of questioning and I carry a crap-o-meter with me everywhere I go : )
I am curious, what brings you to this forum?
Personally, I am just beginning to develop vegan permaculture in small city setting (can we say micro-guilding? Don't know, but experimenting) and grappling with all the hard questions about animals role in that endeavor.
