Vegetarianism and Buddhism

An interesting issue, dealt with at length in this article, which concludes:

The Buddha may have permitted monks to eat meat under very limited circumstances. Would he allow monks to eat meat today? It is very doubtful, as there are many alternatives to meat and the Buddha clearly indicated that not eating meat was preferable if at all possible.

I've read other articles that reach the opposite conclusion, but this one seems the best researched, so draw your own conclusions.