I will keep this OP super duper short so as not to bias it.
For those who have given it some deep ethical thought, why is that you are a meat eater or a vegetarian?
I’m lacto-ovo-vegetarian. Why? Because I like it that way. I’m happy that way. I feel good that way. No other reason needed.
ETA: But the not-killing-animals thing is a definite plus also.
I was a vegetarian for 8 years and gave up a few years ago. I always ate meat reared by people I personally knew, or game and fish shot/caught by people I knew.
I didn’t like the industry that we had made out of rearing animals for food in tiny little cages, with no respect for the lives of those animals, so far removed from them as living beings. And then of course global warming. And that being a vegetarian is healthy.
With game I know they have had a good life, and something of a chance. There is a level of honour in shooting or catching your own meal: it connects you to what you consume. At the same time it’s slightly hypocritical, but it’s better than nothing. At least it’s not this mindless consumption.
I gave up when I started travelling. Now I try to minimise how much meat I eat and I try to buy organic. Buying organic means it’s basically too expensive for me to afford, which makes it a luxury.
My girlfriend has gone back and forth on this, from Paleo to vegetarian to all raw green shakes back to Paleo, all within the last year, and I’ve been doing what I can to keep up.
I’m currently omnivorous but am looking to try out a more dedicated vegetarian diet once I have a kitchen & refrigerator to use. Until them, I’m subsisting on whatever I can pick up at the store or local sandwich shops.
When I eat meat, I try to respect the fact that something died so I could eat, so I try to cook as well as I can, with as little waste as possible. I’m also heading down the expensive road to free-range, grass fed, all natural meat, because I’m not comfortable with the changes made to the meat industry by fast food joints. By that same token, I’m not too happy with corn, either.
I was vegetarian for many years starting in adolescence, until I decided my ethical reasons for avoiding meat didn’t so much apply to dumb wild plentiful fish. So I started eating fish. And I was pesco-vegetarian for nearly a decade until I started teaching school and losing weight on the ever popular stressed-out-of-your-gourd diet, until I almost didn’t weigh enough to qualify to be a horse jockey. Then I started eating meat because I desperately needed the protein-and-fat infusion. Now I eat meat from habit; I regard it as something close to a necessary evil.
I am a meat eater because I don’t see anything ethically wrong with raising animals for meat, provided they are well treated during their lifetime and humanely killed. So when we cook meat it is primarily from a specific farm whose practices we are familiar with and which is open for visitors to come observe.
It is natural for people to eat meat because that’s what the evolved on and we wouldn’t have big brains without it, plus we need some nutrients that can only be obtained from meat (or other animal foods; supplements are NOT natural, if an easy way nowadays to correct dietary deficiencies) or in insufficient amounts from plants, and of course I like it, so there. A lot of the claimed problems caused by meat are either fabrications or just a grain of truth; for example, the contribution of methane from cows to global warming is insignificant, especially when you factor in all of the methane emissions from bison and deer pre-settlement and that you aren’t actually adding more carbon to the system, unlike fossil fuels (as mentioned here), of course, not considering the feeding practices, which shouldn’t use human food crops (but corn ethanol is much worse since no food at all comes from that; undoubtedly, this is leading to higher food prices, both for vegan foods and meat).
Nor is meat - even red meat - unhealthy, unless it is processed or overconsumed; then again, so are many other processed foods, whether they are vegan or not (or just use small amounts of some animal product, many being mostly grains, sugar and fat); 40% of our calories (and rising) come from nutritionally worthless added fats and sugars (about 1,000 calories a day out of 2,500, including the entire RDA for fats):
(in other words, the epidemics of obesity, diabetes, heart disease etc are not caused by meat but vegan foods, those added fats also being nasty stuff like hydrogenated oil, once claimed to be healthier (hey, it’s from vegetables!) or excessive amounts of saturated:total fat (which isn’t unhealthy in moderation); this article also says that while saturated fats increase LDL cholesterol, it is of a benign type, unlike carbohydrates, which makes sense if you consider the aforementioned studies that found no link between (unprocessed) meat and heart disease)
Of course, meat also had a lot of protein in it, and I prefer high-protein foods, including about 5 cups of milk a day (said to be the best source of protein for muscle-building, plus people who consume a lot of dairy are healthier). Yeah, so some vegetables/grains have high protein content, but they aren’t complete so you need to be sure you combine them, plus the calorie/protein ratio for lean meat can be very high (e.g. tuna is about 95% protein calories).
As it is, I could go without eating meat or eggs, but not dairy (the milk I buy also claims not to use steroids/hormones, so good for them, not that I really pay attention to that stuff).
I eat meat because time and time again it is proven (to me) as the fuel my body requires to be here on this planet. I am also comforted and assured that animals that go to my food either willingly do so for my being here or are in a position that it is in their best interest to do so.
Peace
I’m an omnivore because I hate all living things.
I’m an omnivore. I see no ethical issue with human participation in the food chain, and I have a metabolism that tends to demand protein when I’m stressed or ill (I figure that if I’m having a serious craving for something, it’s because my body knows there’s something in that food that it needs).
Omnivore here. I grew up that way and intend to remain so.
To me, killing for food is not a question of morality. Predators in the wild kill to eat. Mankind is only different in that we raise our own prey animals for the most part. It’s part of our adaptability to the environment.
I do believe that livestock should be raised and slaughtered in a humane way. I realize that this is not always the case, and that the meat I buy may not have come to me under the most humane circumstances. I cannot afford specialty products for the most part, and the world is not perfect. But humans in the world are suffering terribly as well, so first things first.
Because bacon tastes so good. Seriously. I’ll tolerate some cooked vegatables like potatoes if they’re full of cheese and sour creme and whatnot, or stuff like tomatoes on tacos, but you won’t catch me eating bags of brocolli like my mother.
Also, I believe the Bible and Genesis 9:2-4, nutty revisionist theories aside, gives us dominion over the animals and permission to use them as food.
I’ve tried to be a vegetarian at least four times. Usually the motivation is the appalling way that many animals are treated before they are slaughtered. Also, a lot of Buddhists are vegetarian so I have felt a mild sort of pressure to be 100% pacifistic with regards to all living things. But I can’t completely convince myself that it’s really wrong to eat meat. I feel sick when I don’t have it. Animals eat one another all the time. It seems like a natural part of being a mammal. But I do strongly believe we have a responsibility to make sure animals we kill for food are treated humanely. Our current system of meat harvesting is disgusting and I try to support more humane methods whenever possible.
I crave meat. I wish I didn’t because it’s damned expensive, but I’d rather have meat than anything else. I think I could be a carnivore if I had the chance. I totally thrived on Atkins.
My GF is an ovo-lacto-vegetarian, and I try to only eat things that had to be killed, so I suppose we offset each other, karmically. She likes animals (but in a crazy, PETA kind of way). Me, I just like meat and I don’t give a shit. I mean, I’m all for animal rights and all, but I don’t believe that eating should have a political agenda.
Now there’s some substance to the thread I might as well answer that I am considering becoming a vegetarian to minimise suffering, but I have huge difficulties with what exactly suffering is. My basic mindset is that there is such a thing as a conscious, which I can tell because I am conscious. And that conscious can suffer, at least in me - although when it does so it suffers through signals in my brain and I see no evidence that my conscious is linked 2-way to the brain (although that also leads to the weird problem as to how my brain knows I am conscious?) just 1-way. So what happens with animals? Do they actually suffer in an important way?
If they do then maybe tis my responsibility not to have them suffer on my behalf. Still it gets more complicated from there but just a way of getting at how I’m thinking about this…
We’re naturally omnivores and I was raised that way.
One way I think about it is this. Many people assume that the suffering of animals is insignificant compared to the suffering of human beings - I think we at least know that their capacity for suffering is not as great based solely on the structure of their brains. But I like to imagine that there may be alien creatures out there with an even more sophisticated sense of consciousness than we have, who can suffer extensively more than humans. If they decided to start breeding humans like cattle for their own consumption I’m not sure humans would find that ‘‘relative’’ distinction to be very meaningful. And I’m sure if the aliens said, ‘‘But we crave your flesh! It makes us feel good!’’ we would not find this a very compelling argument. What seems to them like insignificant suffering would be to us humans quite significant indeed.
As I said before, I am a meat eater. But if there’s any moral underpinning behind vegetarianism I think that would be it. As much as I have a hard time feeling immoral for eating meat, I also have a hard time rationalizing my decision to eat meat, for essentially this reason. Just because something has a smaller capacity for suffering doesn’t mean that its suffering is insignificant. (This is why I can’t squash bugs.) I personally cope with this moral conflict by trying to be aware of the suffering of all living beings. If I am going to eat something I am at least going to acknowledge that it suffered and died for my own benefit, and do everything I can to minimize its suffering on its way to my plate.
I decided to become a vegetarian (I try to be vegan but I don’t call myself that because I’ll eat dairy or egg products if nothing else is available) primarily because of how most animals that are raised to be food are treated. I know there are humane farms, but it still makes me sad. I figure if I wouldn’t eat my pets, why should I eat other animals? I do crave meat sometimes, but I satisfy it by finding a veggie substitute. Meat is so ingrained in my mind as “taboo” by now that I can’t imagine ever going back. I actually regret not giving up meat earlier.
What a coincidence - I’m watching the documentary Vegucated as I’m reading this thread. I’m an omnivore with vegetarian leanings - I accidentally spend days at a time not eating any meat, but that’s not by choice - I just like all foods, including vegetables and fruits and nuts and stuff.
I’m not convinced yet that things like organic certification isn’t another form of greenwashing, but I’m open to changing my lifestyle to not participate in factory farming. I’m still holding out for vat meat - totally humane, and indistinguishable from meat from animals! 
By the way, I’m coming to the conclusion that pets in the house aren’t really humane, either. I don’t think I’ll have another pet after my 13 year old cat is finished with being alive.