are vegetarians more ethical by not eating meat?

[little_monkey]

I don't think the argument has ever been that killing for food is always wrong. What we have is a viable choice not to do it. It becomes ethically wrong to cause suffering when there is no need. If I'm starving, would I eat you to keep alive. Maybe.

Our ethics here come from our empathy. We know animals suffer like we do. Therefore we can't justify causing them suffering without good reason. Modern food production has removed us from that choice pretty much. We don't see it, so it didn't happen.

If you'd lived on a farm, you would see slaughtering on a day-to-day basis. Are farmers more vegan than the rest of society? I think not. My parents lived on the farm. My mother use to slaughter a chicken just about every week, and once in a while a pig, rabbits or even a calf. We celebrate that by giving a big feast, and everybody enjoyed, even though the blood was still staining the floor in some parts of the farm.