the meat industry put out decades of propaganda during the great depression & world wars to convince the western world to buy meat & dairy. truth is, humans have lived off plant based diets for millennia. ending factory farming is one of the easiest ways to combat climate change & corporations
Most people have consumed animal proteins the catch is they weren't eating a lot meat regularly. One of my ancestors was upper middle class when he migrated to the USA and founded a small city. His journal talks about his meals and as a wealthy person with a dairy farm he still mostly had stew and rarely ate steak. He wasn't eating animals all the time and that was 1840-80s. We need to go back to a time when eating a whole chicken among a family of four in a single meal almost never happened IF we continue farming animals which as you noted is a climate change nightmare.
Humans have also been eating meat for millennia. We're omnivores, and have always been opportunistic about what we eat
Individuals cutting down their personal meat consumption won't stop factory farming, but ending subsidies that make that practice highly profitable might