Ethical Eating?

Photo from: Wikipedia under the Creative Commons License
January 27, 2015
In the United States an average American consumes around 195 pounds of meat each year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. One concern that’s been brought to attention regarding America’s meat consumption is if it’s actually ethical to eat. When asked what our ancestors ate most people would commonly reply, “meat.”- Often times, they would then use this to justify their answer as to why it is ethical to eat. This, however, isn’t necessarily true. The International Natural Hygiene Society states, “
Until the advent of modern processing technologies, dirt, grit, and fiber constituted a large part of most early diets.
— International Natural Hygiene Society
On the other hand though, basic science tells us that our bodies adapt over time to changes including a change in eating habits. Which is why in modern day society we see most meals consisting of some form of meat. Where the ethics part takes place is how we go about getting our meat. Slaughterhouses are the places where more than less of the time we get our meat from. Modern Farmer explains the process of how slaughterhouses go about getting meat from animals such as cattle. Cows are first placed in a cage, stunned with a “CASH Knocker”, and then hung by chains for slaughtering. This may seem inhumane, but they argue, “You can take someone right to the stunner line at one of the biggest slaughterhouses in the world, and they’ll approve of what they see.” Whether or not meat is actually ethically right to eat is based on one’s own view as to if they find the process of getting meat morally right and humane.