(August 1, 2014 at 6:11 pm)bennyboy Wrote: I think it's a net benefit-- FOR PEOPLE. I don't, however, agree that this is the only, or the best, basis for a moral view of meat-eating.
This is really what interests me. For a while I was a vegetarian, and I know a few now. We are/were vegetarians for moral reasons, that the slaughter of animals was a cause of needless suffering. That causing an animal to suffer was morally reprehensible (btw, this is currently why I oppose halal meat, that is inhumane and sick). My views changed as I studied anthropology, and did some independent study on ecology and biology. Now I hold that eating meat is ok so long as the animal lived a good life and their slaughter was not overly cruel.
Here's the issue though, if factory meat farms stopped the price of meat would increase. People would be forced to eat more starchy carbs, which cause really negative health problems. Malnutrition would increase.
So is it ethical to cause an increase in animal suffering and to treat animals like a commodity if it increases the well-being of some humans?
