Meat is culture in America. This simple statement speaks a profound truth.

Whether it be

burgers on the fourth of July, hotdogs at a baseball game, or fast-food chains lining down every

street in the U.S, meat remains deeply ingrained in the cultural fabric of the United States.

However, beneath this tradition lies a question that many choose to ignore. Many humans are

even ignorant of it. Do humans have the moral right to eat animals? Animals are used by humans

for a plethora of reasons, food, clothing, experimentation, entertainment and also pets. Many of

the animals used for food live in terrible conditions, where overcrowding is present, and die early

on in life. This essay will delve into moral complexities regarding consuming animals for food,

and if human beings have the right to participate in factory farm culture.

Human beings value animals, we even chose to love them and take them in as pets. We

help turtles cross the road to prevent them from being run over, we build bird and bat houses to

give shelter, and we even have conservation programs to save habitats. Society has deemed that

animals have some moral significance in our life. Our society values animals and looks down

upon those who go out of their way to hurt animals for no good reason. For example, if I were to

see a friendly dog and start using it as a punching bag, any passer-goer would be disgusted in my

act and look down upon me. Society valuing animals has even led us to adopting animal cruelty

laws today. But where this issue gets a little more nebulous, is when we may think we have a

good reason to harm an animal. A common, and what society deems as good, reason to harm an

animal would be in self-defense. But now what if you were just hungry. Is hunger or taste a good

enough reason to kill and consume an animal? Obviously, society says yes, meat is available in

every corner of America. However, it is looked down upon to kill a human for taste or to

consume. Why is that? Singer would say speciesism.

 Speciesism, a word popularized in 1976 by Peter Singer, an animal ethicist, is an attitude

or a bias towards the interest of one’s own species over the members of other species. (Singer,

1975, p.7) Singer strongly equates this towards other biases that exist such as racism and sexism

calling them all analogous. However, in order to use speciesism to combat against consuming

animals, one must figure out why speciesism is a bad thing. What’s so bad about thinking that

you are better than a pig? We can already acknowledge why sexism and racism are bad, for the

reason that it hurts the wellbeing of the people that experience it. We can be empathetic towards

that as it is human to human, but with speciesism, there is a disconnect as a leap of different

species is much harder to understand than a different skin color or the opposite sex.

Hypotheticals are the best way of putting these disconnects into perspective, as it allows us to

abstract complex ideas and put them in simpler scenarios, and a majority of the arguments

presented in this paper will also come with hypotheticals. To prove why speciesism is bad,

imagine one day a higher life form, call it an alien for simplicity, who is far more intelligent and

physically superior, comes down to earth, and they decide that us humans look tasty, and they

start to kill and consume us. Most humans wouldn’t like this, as they would not want to die, but

do these creatures have the right to eat us. In our society, if two humans did this, we would view

it as first-degree murder, and we all know that is wrong. However, if we apply the same logic as

we do when we consume animals, it will reveal that the alien does have a right to eat us, as they

are smarter and stronger. This either reveals an unsettling fact, or a major inconsistency in our

logic.

Humans like to give reasons to why they can consume animals with a clean conscious,

with some of the most popular being, “We’re just simply smarter and superior to them”. (Chew

on this, Miller) Now, it may be true that the average human is smarter than the average animal,
but does that give us the right to consume them, just because we have a higher intellectual

capacity? An interesting dilemma arises if you follow this argument, the argument from marginal

cases. (Animal Ethics) If one allows a person’s rights to be determined by their intellectual

capabilities, human beings would all have different rights for the most parts, as we are not made

equal in smartness. Following the intelligence argument, it would make it ok to eat mentally

challenged, or even the senile just because we have a higher intelligence than them. Since that

leads to an uncomfortable conclusion, we are forced to take another route that validates us to eat

animals, and more often than not, that route involves speciesism.

America is a huge factory farming nation with about ninety-nine percent of all animals

farmed are raised on factory farms. (Healey) Factory farming is a stark testament to humans’

efficiency as well as moral failure. Imagine a vast expanse of concrete where the air hangs heavy,

and you can smell despair. Where animals are forced to be the shape of a square, the most

efficient for packing in close quarters. Mothers robbed of their young, who face mutilations right

after such as being de-beaked, tail-docked, and even having their horn buds burned off, all

without painkillers. (How are Factory Farms Cruel to Animals) Many creatures live devoid of

any natural behavior. Many can see that this is terrible, but we still use this system. Norcross

forms a hypothetical situation to prove why factory farming is indeed terrible, and we should

protest this system. Norcross begins his hypothetical with a man named Fred. Fred really loves

chocolate, he loves it a lot, basically to the point where he would do anything for it.

Unfortunately for Fred, he gets into an accident in which he looses his ability to taste and enjoy

chocolate. Fred is distraught, but he quickly jumps into research and finds out a way in which he

can taste chocolate again. He learns that when a puppy is tortured and killed, it releases a

chemical called cocomoane (fictional). This chemical can be ingested, and it renews the taste of
chocolate in the body. Fred happily does what he thinks he needs to do, finds a bunch of puppies,

captures and tortures them by cutting off their tails and packing them in cramped boxes, and

eventually killing them. (Puppies, Pigs, and People: Eating Meat and Marginal Cases, Norcross,

Allastair) Many people will be disgusted with what Fred did, but Norcross then relates this

directly to factory farming, saying if it is wrong to kill and torture puppies for gustatory pleasure,

than it is wrong to factory farm. One of the most common objections to this is that pets such as

puppies have a higher moral status than animals in factory farms. Norcross states that our pets

are food in other places and that our food are pets and even sacred in other countries and

cultures. Overall, how would we be able to decide what animals are more morally worthy than

others. Ultimately it leads one to believe if that we are disgusted by Fred’s actions, we should be

disgusted with factory farming.

This brings us to the big question, what can be done about factory farming? Well, if

everyone became vegan, that would obviously be a big help, but that is a big step for everyone in

America to commit to and is highly unlikely. Abigail Geer, who runs a farm sanctuary in Spain

list many other ways one could help, without making the vegan transformation. (Geer) She says

signing relevant petitions and campaigning for local change are great ways to start around the

issue. People are power, and if enough want something done and we make a stand, big things can

happen. Another great way to make changes is to educate others. A lot of people don’t know the

process behind their food. Going back to the chew on this interview, it can be shown that some

people don’t think that deep into the process. “Yeah…I think the cows live a nice stress-free life

on the field until the farmer thinks it’s time, and then you know…they are swiftly and humanely

slaughtered.” (Chew on This, Miller) If only it was actually like that. Many people don’t know

the atrocities that happen at factory farms as it isn’t something typically shown on the
mainstream media, only in niche documentaries that you need to search for in order to find.

Factory farming is not going to disappear overnight, but over time, as it is brought to the light

more and more, we can cause a real change.

Ultimately, while the debate surrounding the morals of consuming animals is

multifaceted and complex, factory farming practices remain an issue that cannot be ignored.

Philosophers like Singer challenged us by questioning if our bias for our own species is strong

enough to overcome the exploitations and mistreatments of other living creatures. Norcross

highlighted severe inconsistencies with our logic regarding factory farming and our own moral

reasons. Overall, the decision to consume meat should not only be one of personal preference,

but also one of morals that extend beyond our plate.

 Works Cited

Singer, Peter. Animal Liberation. 1st ed., HarperCollins, 1975.

Hodyl, John, and Max Miller. “Chew on This.” 23 Jan. 2024.

Norcross, Alastair. “Puppies, pigs, and people: Eating meat and marginal cases.” Philosophical
Perspectives, vol. 18, no. 1, Nov. 2004, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1520-8583.2004.00027.x.

Healey, P. (2024, January 22). 99% of farmed animals in the US are Factory-Farmed, data
shows — species unite. Species Unite. https://www.speciesunite.com/news-stories/99-of-
farmed-animals-in-the-us-are-factory-farmed-data-shows#:~:text=Nearly%20all
%20livestock%20animals%20in%20the%20US%20are,99%20percent%20of%20all
%20livestock%20in%20the%20country

The Humane League. (2021). How Are Factory Farms Cruel to Animals. Humane League.
Retrieved February 14, 2024, from https://thehumaneleague.org/article/factory-farming-
animal-cruelty

Geer, A., & Geer, A. (2021, March 8). Simple ways you can help end factory farming (Besides
going veg). One Green Planet. https://www.onegreenplanet.org/animalsandnature/simple-
ways-you-can-help-end-factory-farming-besides-going-veg/

Animals and Ethics | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. (n.d.). https://iep.utm.edu/animals-

and-ethics/#SSH1fi