ABSTRACT
This is the second of three chapters about animals as food. Now that we have an understanding of what animal agriculture and aquaculture are like, we can turn to the moral issues they raise. In particular, this chapter separates three ethical issues that are typically run together: first, the ethics of producing animal-based foods; second, the ethics of purchasing animal-based foods; third, the ethics of consuming animal-based foods. As we’ll see, while most moral theories condemn the production of animal-based foods, the ethics of purchasing and consuming them are more complex. As we’ll also see, though, there is at least one way of navigating that complexity that’s worth considering.
