ABSTRACT
Most of the meat consumed in economically developed societies is from animals raised in factory farms. In these ‘farms’, the animals are tightly packed into filthy, stifling, indoor spaces, and thus suffer more or less continuous physical and psychological torment throughout their entire lives. Some people will say that they simply cannot get the same pleasure from plant foods that they get from meat. It seems that eating meat from factory farmed animals is usually unnecessary for whatever benefits one gets, and that the suffering that factory farming inflicts is disproportionate in relation to those benefits. Factory farms evolved through efforts to increase the profits from producing meat by reducing the costs. Consider, then, whether the increase in enjoyment that some people get from eating meat can justify the killing of animals raised humanely. If humane rearing were to replace factory farming, meat would become a luxury regularly available only to the rich.
