[nhangen]

Hate to break it to you, but there is no such thing as ethically farmed meat. If it’s killed for your plate, it’s still bad karma.

[adrianN]

You don't acknowledge an ethical difference between a pig that has never seen the sun and lived on barely enough room to stand and a pig that has been held in a way that accommodated its natural behaviors?

[nhangen]

There is an ethical difference yes, but it’s still a net negative. We don’t need to kill in order to eat. We just choose to.

[xyzzy123]

It gets ethically weird for me when I contemplate hypothetical pigs that had happy lives but would not have existed if they were not farmed. Kinda Logan’s run? But pigs.

The utilitarian in me wants to see the existence of the pig as an ethical net positive overall.

[johnchristopher]

I think the argument that eating the pig raised in dark factory is better than the pig that had a life is valid.

[nhangen]

Sure, but that doesn't make it "ethical." It's still killed, and nothing wants to be killed.

[CuriouslyC]

Death isn't the problem, everything dies. The problem is needless suffering.

Eating meat can actually be a moral act. If the animal you eat lead a better life than it otherwise would have because of the care you provided in raising it, it's a net good. To put this in perspective, imagine you were impoverished and living a miserable existence and someone offered to let you live in comfort and luxury, and promised to take care of your offspring, but in exchange you had to agree to euthanasia at age 30. That might not be attractive to you from a first world perspective, but a lot of people would take that in a heartbeat.

[nhangen]

Death !== killing, not matter how you want to justify it.

[nightcracker]

I hate to break it to you, but everything that you eat is killed for your plate.

[mac01021]

Unless you're a freegan

[nerdponx]

This is a matter of opinion, not fact. With dairy, you might have a point.