Why It's OK to Eat Meat

Dan C. Shahar

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN:
  9780367172763
  9780367172756
• eBook ISBN:
  9781000466386
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Ethics & Moral Philosophy

Vegetarians have argued at great length that meat-eating is wrong. Even so, the vast majority of people continue to eat meat, and even most vegetarians eventually give up on their diets. Does this prove these people must be morally corrupt?

In Why It's OK to Eat Meat, Dan C. Shahar argues the answer is no: it's entirely possible to be an ethical person while continuing to eat meat—and not just the "fancy" offerings from the farmers' market but also the regular meat we find at most supermarkets and restaurants. Shahar's examination forcefully echoes vegetarians' concerns about the meat industry's impacts on animals, workers, the environment, and public health. However, he shows that the most influential ethical arguments for avoiding meat on the basis of these considerations are ultimately unpersuasive. Instead of insisting we all become vegetarians, Shahar argues each of us has broad latitude to choose which of the world's problems to tackle, in what ways, and to what extents, and hence people can decline to take up this particular form of activism without doing anything wrong.

Key Features

• First book-length defense of meat-eating written for a popular audience
• Punchy, accessible introduction to the multifaceted debate over the ethics of eating meat
• Includes pioneering new examinations of humane labeling practices
• Shows why appeals to universalized patterns of behavior can't vindicate vegetarians' claims that there's a duty to avoid meat
• Develops a novel theory of ethical activism with potential applications to a wide range of other issues

Notes

Is It OK to Eat Meat?

1. For discussion of trends in vegetarianism in the US context—and some of the difficulties in measuring them accurately—see Saulius Šimcˇikas, “Is the Percentage of Vegetarians and Vegans in the U.S. Increasing?” Animal Charity Evaluators (2018), available online at https://animalcharityevaluators.org/blog/is-the-percentage-of-vegetarians- and-vegans-in-the-u-s-increasing/.
2. One other terminological point: as we’ll discuss in later chapters, new technological advancements are beginning to make it possible to produce “meat”—i.e., animal muscle tissues—without raising and killing animals. In this book, when I talk about “meat,” I’ll be talking about the kind of meat that comes from killing animals rather than tissues synthesized or grown in a lab.
3. Hannah Ritchie and Max Roser, “Meat and Dairy Production,” Our World in Data (2019), available online at https://ourworldindata.org/meat-production.
4. Humane Research Council, “Study of Current and Former Vegetarians and Vegans” (2014), available online at https://faunalytics.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Faunalytics_Current-Former-Vegetarians_Full-Report.pdf. This underestimates the true extent of reversion since at least some survey participants who are currently experimenting with vegetarianism will go back to eating meat as well. Of those who had given up vegetarianism in the study, about a third reverted within three months; more than half did so within a year; and more than two-thirds did within two years. Among the currently vegetarian participants, 5% had adhered to their diets for less than three months, 13% for less than a year, and 20% for less than two years.
5. In this connection, many vegetarians were once meat-eaters, and they often invoke explanations like these to account for their former behavior. See, e.g., Michael Huemer, Dialogues on Ethical Vegetarianism (New York: Routledge, 2019), xii–xiv.
6. See along these lines Loren Lomasky, “Is It Wrong to Eat Animals?” Social Philosophy & Policy 30, nos. 1–2 (2013): 177–200.
7. It’s not clear this argument would be decisive even if we were willing to grant it. Suppose it turned out that, due to a bizarre feature of human psychology, owning slaves makes people substantially happier than it’s possible to be without slaves. At most, this would show there’s something tragic about how humans are built that makes it impossible to be fully happy while also living ethically.
8. See, e.g., Yotam Ottolenghi, Plenty (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2011).
9. See on this point Peter Singer, Animal Liberation, Updated Edition (New York: HarperCollins, [1975] 1999), 178.
10. See, e.g., Tamara M. Pfeiler and Boris Egloff, “Do Vegetarians Feel Bad? Examining the Association between Eating Vegetarian and Subjective Well-Being in Two Representative Samples,” Food Quality and Preference 86 (2020), article 104018.
11. See, e.g., Jonathan Safran Foer, Eating Animals (New York: Little, Brown & Co., 2009), chs. 1 and 8.
12. See, e.g., H.K. Biesalski, “Meat as a Component of a Healthy Diet—Are There Any Risks or Benefits if Meat Is Avoided in the Diet?” Meat Science 70, no. 3 (2005): 509–524; PaleoLeap, “How Vegetarianism Is Bad For You and the Environment,” PaleoLeap (2020), available online at https://paleoleap.com/vegetarianism-bad-environment/.
13. See, e.g., Mayo Clinic Staff, “Vegetarian Diet: How to Get the Best Nutrition,” Healthy Lifestyle: Nutrition and Healthy Eating (2020), available online at https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy- eating/in-depth/vegetarian-diet/art-20046446.
14. See, e.g., A. Wolk, “Potential Health Hazards of Eating Red Meat,” Journal of Internal Medicine 281, no. 2 (2017): 106–122.
15. Some proponents of meat-eating acknowledge it only takes a tiny amount to achieve the distinctive fulfillments associated with the practice, and they conclude on this basis that people should drastically reduce their consumption of meat. For example, Dominique Lestel, in Eat This Book: A Carnivore’s Manifesto (New York: Columbia University Press, 2016), insists people have an ethical duty to eat meat as a way of spiritually internalizing their nature as animals. Yet, he grants that “Factory farming is a disgrace” and “In rich countries, the consumption of meat has become a habit that no longer involves a hint of commemoration or communion” (77). Hence Lestel insists we eat some meat but agrees people should drastically reduce their consumption. As my preceding comments indicate, I don’t find plausible Lestel’s views regarding an alleged duty to eat meat (or the claims about “animality” on which he bases them). For present purposes, however, the more important difference between us has to do with my aim to defend eating meat “in the regular way” and not only as merely a ceremonial indulgence.
16. See, e.g., Jeffrey Kluger, “Sorry Vegans: Here’s How Meat-Eating Made Us Human,” TIME (2016), available online at https://time.com/4252373/ meat-eating-veganism-evolution/.
17. I should note, however, that there are examples of meat-eaters advancing arguments in this vein. See, e.g., Christopher Belshaw, “Meat,” in The Moral Complexities of Eating Meat, edited by Ben Bramble and Bob Fischer (New York: Oxford University Press, 2016), 9–29, at 20.
18. For a classic treatment of this point, see John Stuart Mill, “On Nature,” in Nature, the Utility of Religion, and Theism (London: Longmans, Green & Co., [1874] 1885), 3–65.
19. For discussion of the decline in violence in recent human history, see Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined (New York: Viking Books, 2011).
20. See, e.g., Plato, “Gorgias,” in Plato: Complete Works, edited by John M. Cooper (Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing Co., 1997), 791–869, at 827–828.
21. Genesis 9:2–3 (NRSV).
22. Genesis 1:29.
23. Genesis 9:3.
24. Leviticus 11.
25. Isaiah 11:6–9.
26. Isaiah 66:3.
27. E.g., Exodus 21:1–27; Leviticus 25:39–46.
28. Exodus 21:20–21.
29. Leviticus 20:9–10.
30. Leviticus 20:13.
31. We can find examples of this strategy particularly within Christian traditions. In Romans, Paul insists that Gentiles should not fixate on the details of Jewish law since, for them, salvation is fundamentally about faith in God rather than compliance with a particular code of conduct. Along similar lines, the Catechism of the Catholic Church 577–582, available online at https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P1N.htm, contends Jesus fulfilled the Jewish law and brought about the redemption of acts that transgress against it.
32. See, e.g., Philo of Alexandria, Philo in Ten Volumes, and Two Supplementary Volumes (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1929–1962); Origen, On First Principles (New York: Harper & Row, 1966); Saint Augustine, On Genesis, translated by Edmund Hill and edited by John E. Rotelle (New City Press, 2002).
33. Mark 7:18–21.
34. 1 Corinthians 10:31.
35. 1 Corinthians 10:23.
36. For attempts to develop such an argument, see Andrew Linzey, Animal Theology (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1994); Matthew Scully, Dominion: The Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals, and the Call to Mercy (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2002).
37. See, e.g., Jeremy R. Garrett, “Utilitarianism, Vegetarianism, and Human Health: A Response to the Causal Impotence Objection,” Journal of Applied Philosophy 24, no. 3 (2007): 223–237. For a prominent example of the sort of health study invoked to defend this view, see T. Colin Campbell and Thomas M. Campbell II, The China Study, Revised and Expanded Edition (Dallas: BenBella Books, 2016).
38. E.g., Mayo Clinic Staff, “How Meat and Poultry Fit In Your Healthy Diet,” Healthy Lifestyle: Nutrition and Healthy Eating (2019), available online at https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/food-and-nutrition/art-20048095.
39. This claim does not depend on the thesis that small amounts of meat are completely safe. Even if there turns out to be some risk associated with consuming even tiny quantities of meat, it would not be absurd for someone to regard these risks as worthwhile for the sake of the benefits of eating meat. Consider in this connection that every time you get into a car, you increase your chances of death or permanent disability, and yet most of us don’t regard this as a decisive reason never to get into a car. On the other hand, some people may find it easier to maintain a healthy diet by avoiding all meat, perhaps because they’re prone to “overdo it” when they allow themselves to have any. These people may have good practical reasons to become vegetarians, but this would not imply a moral duty to do so in any broader sense. Consider in this connection that some recovering alcoholics find it easiest to maintain control if they abstain from drinking entirely, but this doesn’t imply the rest of us are obligated to do the same.
40. For reservations about this view, see Christine Korsgaard, Fellow Creatures: Our Obligations to the Other Animals (New York: Oxford University Press, 2018), 221.
41. This strategy runs the risk of ignoring potential synergies among different vegetarian arguments. I take up this possibility in Chapter 6.
42. It’s worth clarifying that proponents of “wrong in principle” arguments aren’t necessarily committed to claiming that eating meat is wrong no matter what. If the planet’s survival depended on eating a bite of meat, I take it that virtually every vegetarian would do it. By the same token, if the planet’s survival depended on capturing another human being to be your slave, I bet you would do it. Yet, this doesn’t undermine the claim that slavery is wrong as a matter of principle. It just shows that even powerful moral principles can sometimes give way in the face of extreme situations.
43. See, e.g., Michael Pollan, The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals (New York: Penguin Books, 2006); Terence Cuneo, “Conscientious Omnivorism,” in Philosophy Comes to Dinner: Arguments about the Ethics of Eating, edited by Andrew Chignell, Terence Cuneo, and Matthew C. Halteman (New York: Routledge, 2016), 21–38.
44. David DeGrazia, “Moral Vegetarianism from a Very Broad Base,” ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Endorsement Page
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• One Is It OK to Eat Meat?
• Two Conscientious Omnivorism
• Three The Other 99%
• Four Making a Difference
• Five What If Everyone Did That?
• Six Hanging Our Hats
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index