*musing*....(since the thread has long since drifed)...I wonder when NOT eating meat became a semi-common thing? We are descended from animals who were omnivores, and in some societies, being a vegetarian is not even much of an option.

There are several reasons to abstain from meat...health issues, religious feelings, economic reasons...or BBES........the dreaded Big Brown Eyes Syndrome. I will shrug at the first 3, even the religious one...but BBES bothers me. I have known a number of people whose concern for animals seemed to be related to how 'cute' they are.

I am certainly aware that raising ANY animals for food usually involves some compromise in the animal's situation in its brief life, but I have no idea how to put meter on it....does a chicken 'suffer' in mass feeding areas? Is half a billion animals for slaughter better than 10 billion? Sorta...yes...but why? For which of the 4 reasons moted above? A simple numbers game doesn't tell me much.

I am rather of the opinion that MANY fewer people would be a step in the right direction, and allow 'enough' animals to be raised or otherwise acquired that their condition would be far less an issue.

I don't thing there was much 'moral opprobrium' attached to Inuit hunting seals...for fur OR food...or to native Americans using masses of Bison for their livlihood.

There is an entire recent sub-branch of the Philosophy of Religion called "Situational Ethics" which attempts to get a handle on problems like this.....but like any subjective theory, it is largely a matter of whether one LIKES it or not.

Yes, I eat meat....ate quite a batch today (Easter), though I am trying to cut back on it a bit....but I guess much of it is the economic factor.