My two bits on the morality of eating meat...

1.) Supposedly eating strictly vegetarian removes more habitat from
the
     ecosystem than eating only meat.  The logic being
     that a wheat/corn/etc field is denuded of other plants
     so bunny rabbits can't live there and are killed if they try
     to live there.  A cow pasture is shared by a lot more than
    cows.  E.g bunnies, deer, etc.  One can argue that
    if you kill all the animals in a square mile field, that
    is mean, but after that there are no more animals dying.
    So you get into the argument wether the goal is
    "do not kill" or the goal is "foster life".  If it is
    to not kill, then the best thing you could do is kill your
    self so there is only one death caused by you.  If it
    is foster life, then the best would be to have an all-natural
    farm and raise your own food in a manner that maximizes
    the ecological richness per square acre.  You then become
   a master gardener/farmer and foster life, creating
   a "garden of Eden".  Better yet, foster a better society
   that maximizes the smart use of resources.

2.) There is the fear of death that humans have due to their
     amazing ability to predict and foresee the future.  No other
     animal seems to have such foresight that they fear death.
     Most simply avoid death when it is the immediate future
     with a typical foresight of about a minute or less.
     Thus, farm animals spend MUCH less time avoiding
     or "worrying" about death than wild animals do.
    Still, ever acre of farm is an acre less that predators
    can use, so I guess the predators have to worry
    about starving.  No win here.

    My children often make comments like, "are lions
    bad?"  and I answer, animals are neither good nor bad,
    they simply are.  Some animals may be dangerous
    or not dangerous to humans.  The entire moral
    compass that people follow does not apply to
    animals. (Brings to mind an article about someone
    who performed marriage ceremonies for their dogs
    before they mated so the dogs would not be
    immoral.)

3.) There is the simple fact that all living things need to
      live by eating something.  To be more exact,
      Humans must kill to eat, whether directly
      to eat meat, or indirectly to eat plants.  In fact
      eating plants requires a lot of insects to be killed
      either with pesticides, or organic means.

4.)  Then there are the religious aspects.
    In Christian theology, God gave us all of the
    animals to eat (or most of them) and so we "own"
   the Earth and all it's resources.  What an interesting
   concept.  All the other animals are simply here and
   have no concept of ownership.  Does a deer hate
   the cougar that kills it?  Does the cougar have a right
   to kill the deer?  Such concepts are uniquely human.
   (Ok, maybe we'll communicate with whales some day
   and they may be capable of understanding such concepts,
   or may not.)
   Most all other ancient theologies have a similar moral code
   in regards to animals, except Bhudism.  Notice I say ancient here,
   some modern "I just made it up" theologies such as New Age
   dictate vegan, but they have not yet stood the test of time.
   (I may not be exactly correct here about which philosophies
    espouse vegan.)

5.) There is the issue of wasting resources which is very
    serious.  One should not waste food.

R. Keene