as long as you dont feed babies soy milk, cool.

being serious here.

Alright, I'll give you my personal account of vegetarianism.

For 17 years I lived in Chile: that country next to Agentina; enclosed by mountains on one side and the sea on the other. There I met tons of people, just like anybody else who lives his life in a single place for many many years would do. Out of all the people I met there, those who were vegetarians were no more than about 3.
Now, I find myself in England. Having lived here for about 6 months and meeting just about the average amount of people that anybody meets in his fresher's year in Uni (which is, of course, less than all the people you have met so far in your life), I find myself knowing about 15 people which are vegetarian.

Now, a little bit of common knowledge: Chile, as well as Argentina, is broadly knwon for the quality of its meat.  Both countries have optimal conditions for the breeding of bovines, and therefore the final product is very good. Because of this, it is part of the culture to eat loads of meat (and very good meat).+

As a strong supporter of determinism and psychological egoism then, I think that the rate of vegetarians in countries like England and the USA is bigger because they have not tried (or are not used to) good quality meat, and therefore their percieved well-being obtained from following their moral values is higher than their percieved well-being from eating meat, thus motivating them to choose the vegetarian ways. Or in other words, they do not like meat enough to not stop eating it. The meat in your country is generally so shit that you don't give a damn not eating it anymore.

Personally, I could not live without eating meat. Even if is this shitty English meat, if I didn't eat any meat I'd feel sick. Well, I wouldn't feel sick, but I'd feel that I havn't eaten properly and that I am still hungry in a strange way. I know that eating loads of meat is not that healthy and shit, but as long as I am still young and slim, I don't care.

Anyway, I understand tho why you have stopped eating meat; and although I'd recomend you to go to Chile and eat a proper barbeque and then reconsider, I also would recomend you to eat loads of hummus and avocado, because they're fucking awesome and they're vegetarian shit.

yeah i think most people go without the meat substitutes but i'm not gonna do that, at least not right away. i'll want burgers and sausage every now and then, so i'll get the fake versions sometimes but they do cost a lot so i won't get them all the time.

this is pretty silly. i do like meat, a lot! i dunno where you heard british meat is terrible, cos i get the impression from seeing angus beef burgers in menus all over the world that scottish meat is pretty highly regarded. also i don't know if there are many people who really give a shit about how 'good' the meat is. i mean, it all tastes the same - some steaks can be more SUCCULENT or whatever, but it's not like there is a world of difference between a mcdonalds and a burger from a restaurant. mcdonalds is crappier, but it still basically the same taste.

i'm not swearing off meat cos i don't like it, i don't think anyone does it for that reason at all.

Well, the thing is that I haven't heard that british meat is terrible... I've tasted it. To be honest and fair, is not like all british meat is horrible. But good quality meat is ridiculously expensive and hard to find, that's the problem.
And you are soooooooooooooooooooooo wrong when you say that all the meat tastes the same... Succulent is just a way to cook it. But there's a hell of a difference in meat... A HELL! Of course if for you meat is burgers then you don't really know what good meat is since burgers (and specially if from Mcdonalds) are just partly made out of meat.
However the world of meat is very varied. The cow in itself already has different kinds of meats that taste different and should be cooked differently: The Sirloins, the plate, the brisket, the shanks, etc...
I mean, I agree with you that people don't give a shit about meat because.... why would they? But thenif you really tasted the different good meats and all, you'd give it a second chance.
I'm not saying that you're swearing off meat cus u don't like it... I'm saying that you're swearing it off because you don't like it enough lol....

Anyway... And btw England has one of the highest rates of people that doesn't eat red meat in the western world (in the eastern world hindus can't eat red meat).