I have no ethical qualms with killing animals. I do all my own slaughter and processing and exclusively eat meat that I either killed myself (pigs & chickens on my farm), or that I traded with farmer friends for (sheep & beef) who have similar standards as we do.
Once you are actually in contact with the food you're raising and agriculture in general, I think this becomes much, much simpler an ethical question. I mean, even just the animal impact on a vegetarian diet becomes much more questionable after you witness a finish mower grinding up a half-dozen foals during cutting, when you witness the mass habitat destruction wrought by GMO soybean monoculture, etc.
It becomes even more questionable when you bring up livestoc raised on land otherwise unusable for agriculture--dryland farming in Montana, wherein stocking rates are very low, land is intensively managed, and the alternatives presented by the lab-grown meat folks tend to always rely on rowcrops destroying otherwise great animal habitats.
Finally, the more we learn about plants, the more it seems they're far more capable of what we might call "cognition" than we did in the past.
Nature is competitive, and we are the peak species of evolution on earth. To me, this doesn't mean we try to walk the lands while sparing all life possible. Rather, to me, it means we become stewards of the land and its inhabitants. Hunters are, to me, the prime example of this. Hunters are responsible for vastly more improvement to natural habitats and maintenance of trophy species than vegans, and I'd bet have a much greater positive impact on the environment than animal-lovers who eat tonnes of rowcropped vegetables.
Once you are actually in contact with the food you're raising and agriculture in general, I think this becomes much, much simpler an ethical question. I mean, even just the animal impact on a vegetarian diet becomes much more questionable after you witness a finish mower grinding up a half-dozen foals during cutting, when you witness the mass habitat destruction wrought by GMO soybean monoculture, etc.
It becomes even more questionable when you bring up livestoc raised on land otherwise unusable for agriculture--dryland farming in Montana, wherein stocking rates are very low, land is intensively managed, and the alternatives presented by the lab-grown meat folks tend to always rely on rowcrops destroying otherwise great animal habitats.
Finally, the more we learn about plants, the more it seems they're far more capable of what we might call "cognition" than we did in the past.
Nature is competitive, and we are the peak species of evolution on earth. To me, this doesn't mean we try to walk the lands while sparing all life possible. Rather, to me, it means we become stewards of the land and its inhabitants. Hunters are, to me, the prime example of this. Hunters are responsible for vastly more improvement to natural habitats and maintenance of trophy species than vegans, and I'd bet have a much greater positive impact on the environment than animal-lovers who eat tonnes of rowcropped vegetables.