What is Ethical Meating Eating?

If a person believes that killing an animal to consume its flesh is fundamental unjustifiable, for them there is not such thing as ethical meat eating.  However when meat is avoided for reasons of animal welfare or environmental impacts, a case can be made.

George Schedler (2005)  makes the interesting argument that the animals that exist for meat production, and their enjoyment of their lives, should be counted in favor of a meat eating community.  He also argues that vegetable production causes suffering to 'field animals' whose dens and sometimes lives are destroyed during cultivation. He argues that fewer animals are in fact killed under a grazing system than a cropping system.  This in addition to the human pleasure derived from meat eating can be used to argue in favor of 'ethical meat eating'.

People are swayed in their meat purchasing behavior by ethical considerations such as the perceived welfare of animals raised to produce meat (Tonsor et al, 2011).  However other factors such as perceived food safety typically have a higher magnitude of effect.

References:

• Schedler, G. (2005). Does ethical meat eating maximise utility? Social Theory and Practice, 31, 499.
• Tonsor, GT; Olynk NJ (2011). Impacts of animal well-being and welfare media on meat demand. Journal of Agricultural Economics, 62, 59-72.