Though I eat very little meat I accept the fact that I belong to a species considered to be omnivores, and now and then crave animal protein. I accept the fact that "raised" meat borders on a necessity. How such meat is raised, however, defines a culture, in my estimation. Feed lots, chicken factories, veal cages...these all have implications far beyond the obvious cruelty aspect, and I think society as a whole suffers from such abuse.

Meat raised in this way, in a totally artificial environment, with antibiotics, inappropriate food such as urea and animal byproducts being fed to herbavores at worst, and unnatural at best, is not healthy food. Slaughter houses are rife with trauma, both mental and physical, which changes hormonal balances in the animal, releasing adrenalin, stiffening muscles, further contaminating the meat. And the post slaughter handling, thru the long chain of processing and shipment is disastrous.

Commercially raised meat is a brutalizing business. It is not possible to work day in and day out around so much palpable suffering, the stench, the crowding, aberrant behavior caused by these conditions, without a frightening reduction of personal sensitivity. Studies have been done showing that pathological criminals often signal their behavior toward humans with brutal behavior to other animals.

I don't think one needs to be a calf hugger to see that capitolism has run amok here, any more than one needs to be a tree hugger to be appalled at the destruction of old growth forests when sustained forestry, at a slightly higher initial cost, is bypassed. It is the same with industrial waste, pollution...aghhh...the list is endless.
This is where capitolism fails big-time, in my estimation. Without rigorous and uncorruptible oversight, it is too short sighted, too driven by gain, to be a long-range workable economic system.

And one only has to read the papers to know that that kind of oversight is not happening. And in the meat business, this means not only are animals suffering, we are poisoning and brutalizing ourselves in the process.