# What justification is there for eating meat? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [July 7, 2017, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-justification-is-there-for-eating-meat/790659 "2017-07-07T00:25:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Marcus\_Flavius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a4c791/32.png) [@Marcus\_Flavius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marcus_Flavius)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2017, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-justification-is-there-for-eating-meat/790659/1 "2017-07-07T00:25:44Z")
Given the fact that humans can get by just fine without any meat or animal products in their diet, and the amount of cheaply available grains, vegetables, fruits and legumes everywhere, what justification is there for consuming animal products, other than"it tastes good?" Should we be breeding animals into existence to live in disgraceful conditions and then have them slaughtered for our pleasure? ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2017, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-justification-is-there-for-eating-meat/790659/2 "2017-07-07T00:29:02Z")
It tastes good. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2017, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-justification-is-there-for-eating-meat/790659/3 "2017-07-07T00:30:30Z")
Not all meat animals live in disgraceful conditions, first of all. And why shouldn’t we eat the diet we evolved to eat? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2017, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-justification-is-there-for-eating-meat/790659/4 "2017-07-07T00:31:44Z")
> [@Marcus\_Flavius](#): > > Should we be breeding animals into existence to live in disgraceful conditions and then have them slaughtered for our pleasure? Yes. That’s the definition of being human. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2017, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-justification-is-there-for-eating-meat/790659/5 "2017-07-07T00:32:11Z")
Why do we need a justification? Is your real question this: “Should we be breeding animals into existence to live in disgraceful conditions and then have them slaughtered for our pleasure?” Because that’s an entirely different debate than the one posed by your thread title. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2017, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-justification-is-there-for-eating-meat/790659/6 "2017-07-07T00:33:54Z")
Seriously, it tastes good. And while farming practices seem like a horrible existence and could use improvement, at least the animals are taken care of until slaughter. In the wild they would constantly be in danger. Also, it tastes good. ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2017, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-justification-is-there-for-eating-meat/790659/7 "2017-07-07T00:36:52Z")
Eating the flesh of vanquished foes transfers their powers. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2017, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-justification-is-there-for-eating-meat/790659/8 "2017-07-07T00:42:24Z")
I love vegitarian dishes and could easily live as a vegetarian, but I don’t want to. I like meat, and need protein without a damned spreadsheet telling me what I need to eat. I eat what I want and really enjoy meat. I don’t eat veal though, 'cause I find that cruel. Yeah, I’m a hypocrite, but I have some chicken drumsticks in the oven at the moment. Sent from my XT1635-02 using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2017, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-justification-is-there-for-eating-meat/790659/9 "2017-07-07T00:49:33Z")
I belong to P.E.T.A., People Eating Tasty Animals. If God didn’t intend for us to eat animals, then why did He make them out of meat? ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2017, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-justification-is-there-for-eating-meat/790659/10 "2017-07-07T00:59:39Z")
One objection is that farming meat is a terrible waste of resources and a horribly inefficient way of producing food. At the same time, many people enjoy eating it. Hence a growing interest in developing cheap synthetic meat. ---
**Author:** ![Marcus\_Flavius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a4c791/32.png) [@Marcus\_Flavius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marcus_Flavius)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2017, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-justification-is-there-for-eating-meat/790659/11 "2017-07-07T01:03:40Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > One objection is that farming meat is a terrible waste of resources and a horribly inefficient way of producing food. At the same time, many people enjoy eating it. Hence a growing interest in developing cheap synthetic meat. That is true. Apparently it takes dozens of times more resources to produce a pound of beef than it does to produce a pound of wheat. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2017, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-justification-is-there-for-eating-meat/790659/12 "2017-07-07T01:23:59Z")
> [@Marcus\_Flavius](#): > > That is true. Apparently it takes dozens of times more resources to produce a pound of beef than it does to produce a pound of wheat. I know which one I would prefer to eat. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2017, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-justification-is-there-for-eating-meat/790659/13 "2017-07-07T01:24:52Z")
> [@Marcus\_Flavius](#): > > That is true. Apparently it takes dozens of times more resources to produce a pound of beef than it does to produce a pound of wheat. But you get a lot of different and more concentrated nutrients from the beef than from the wheat. The comparison doesn’t really make sense. And it tastes good. That’s why meat-eating animals thrive (as long as they can continue to get the meat at all), because one big meal of the concentrated nutrients in meat will fuel them for several days of hunting. And plant-eating animals spend 90%\* of their waking time looking for and eating food. The problem with humans is that we eat far more meat than a) we need, and b) is good for us. As with so many issues of consumption, we have not outgrown the behaviors that developed during the many millennia when we were subsistence hunter-gatherers. \*I made up that percentage, but I believe the real one is right up there. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2017, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-justification-is-there-for-eating-meat/790659/14 "2017-07-07T01:30:30Z")
Not all humans are Americans. In fact, most aren’t. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2017, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-justification-is-there-for-eating-meat/790659/15 "2017-07-07T01:35:57Z")
> [@Marcus\_Flavius](#): > > Given the fact that humans can get by just fine without any meat or animal products in their diet, and the amount of cheaply available grains, vegetables, fruits and legumes everywhere, what justification is there for consuming animal products, other than"it tastes good?" Well, to start, we actually DO need a small amount of B12, which is only obtainable naturally via animal sources. It’s a really, really, really small amount, to be honest, but long term no, you can’t get by “just fine” with absolutely nothing of animal origin in your diet. There are some alternatives these days but the ability of your body to actually utilize them is somewhat questionable. Second, allergies to legumes are actually one of the more common ones (peanut and soy, for example). Such people would find it difficult to obtain sufficient protein from an exclusively non-animal-origin diet. I wouldn’t want to condemn people because they have an actual medical problem All that said - yes, we and the world would be better off if collectively we ate a lot less meat. ---
**Author:** ![Fugazi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f08c70/32.png) [@Fugazi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fugazi)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2017, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-justification-is-there-for-eating-meat/790659/16 "2017-07-07T01:56:00Z")
I just don’t really like vegetables all that much. If I had to survive as a vegetarian, it would be a really boring diet. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2017, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-justification-is-there-for-eating-meat/790659/17 "2017-07-07T02:00:40Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > One objection is that farming meat is a terrible waste of resources and a horribly inefficient way of producing food. At the same time, many people enjoy eating it. Hence a growing interest in developing cheap synthetic meat. Agreement…and agreement. Technology already has given us some VERY yummy faux-meat products, and they’re just going to get better and better. The day may not come soon when an expert cannot taste the difference, but, seriously, the day is here already when the average Sue can have a meatless hot dog that’s completely enjoyable. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2017, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-justification-is-there-for-eating-meat/790659/18 "2017-07-07T02:48:45Z")
There are numerous varieties of dolphin. I’ve tasted but half of them. ---
**Author:** ![pool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pool/32/4152_2.png) [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2017, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-justification-is-there-for-eating-meat/790659/19 "2017-07-07T03:19:56Z")
Even if some scientist could make a synthetic meat that tasted just as good and had some playful chemistry that made the list of nutrients equivalent to the real thing or something I wouldn’t eat it. Time and time again we learn how all these manmade synthetic edibles, like fake sugars, fake butters, trans fats, multivitamins, etc. end up actually being unhealthy after the facts come to light decades later from thorough research. Mother Nature does know best sometimes. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2017, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-justification-is-there-for-eating-meat/790659/20 "2017-07-07T03:36:12Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > **One objection is that farming meat is a terrible waste of resources and a horribly inefficient way of producing food.** At the same time, many people enjoy eating it. Hence a growing interest in developing cheap synthetic meat. A counter-argument is that farming meat is a maximally-efficient use of resources that would not be nearly as efficient as a source of vegetable food. The “textbook” example is having a bunch of cows grazing on a rocky hillside, where sufficient grass and weeds grow for cows to eat, but which could not be meaningfully productive land for growing crops for people. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-justification-is-there-for-eating-meat/790659.md?page=2)