The Morality of Meat

Should human beings eat animals?

Against: Animals feel pain and should not be made to suffer
For: Animals are animals and their suffering does not matter
My Take: I think we're less morally obligated to be concerned about the suffering of animals which are less intelligent. Some meat animals have been shown to have a high degree of intelligence (ie, pigs), so obviously more consideration should be given to those. That said, an animal which is not genetically designed to do anything other than which it would do being raised for meat (eg, a cow grazing in a field) is not really suffering during life. And, with diligence, the slaughtering process can be made almost painless, especially compared to natural modes of death for that animal (such as being eaten alive by a predator). As a final note, suffering and stress causes the release of hormones in an animal which degrades the quality of the meat. So meat farmers really have much to gain by making their methods more humane.

Against: Eating animals is unnatural
For: We are evolved to eat meat; we cannot get nutrition from plants alone
My Take: Using current FDA guidelines, vegans can get full nutrition by careful diet planning and by taking a few supplements. However, a vegetarian diet may be undesirably high in carbohydrates, if the low-carb advocates are correct. Furthermore, since our ancestors indisputably ate some amount of meat and/or dairy, we really don't know what nutrients are bodies are designed to rely on but can't get without animal products. Nevertheless, some people do live long lives without much if any animal matter.

Against: Raising animals for meat hurts the environment
For: Raising animals for meat helps promote the survival of species
My Take: I definitely think certain kinds of farming (ie, the kinds most prevalent in the US) hurt the environment. And I'm not sure that sustainable farming methods could feed the world. I do think that raising animals in close to their natural condition for meat will have a net zero or positive impact on the environment, but I think we need to scale down our population before this is ever possible everywhere.

Against: Eating a corpse is gross
For: Eating meat is delicious
My Take: This is a personal choice. If it just comes down to being able to stomach eating something which once had some degree of awareness, then you may not want to eat meat.

In Summary: I think that raising and slaughtering animals in humane, natural environments is not only good for us, but also good for the animals and the environment. I think extra care should be given to more intelligent animals (such as pigs), and perhaps those animals should not be eaten at all.

Hopefully, some day all our meat will be raised in a petri dish and live meat will become nothing but a novelty.