Between the bird flu (which two people currently have) and mad cow, I can't fathom wanting to eat meat again anytime soon. I'm finding myself drifting more and more towards vegetarianism. Not entirely intentionally, but not unawares either. Part of it is a health issue - now that I don't smoke everything tastes so much richer - plain fruits and vegetables meet virtually all my cravings. And exercising regularly moderates my cravings, too - I don't crave rich red meat or salty pork meat, and chicken, yuck, I've never been a big fan of fowl meat (pun intended :).

There's also the moral aspect of cruelty to animals. I think I've purposely not learned much about it, but I know that the conditions that most food animals are raised in are far less than ideal - cramped quarters, feed that they're not meant to eat, antibiotics and other drugs pumped into their systems. Their lives are not just less than ideal, they're horrific. It's easy for me to anthropomorphize critters, but let's not do that and just think about the way that these animals live naturally, removed from the influence of humans and then compare that life to the lives they end up living on these farms.

Responsible consumerism is something that I've begun to be more aware of and conscioiusly supportive of. I think you can eat meat responsibly. I have a friend that argues that killing animals is wrong period. But I don't agree - as another friend poses, "Is it morally wrong for one animal to kill another for food?" And I can't say yes. Yes, humans have the option to choose not to eat meat, to choose not to kill animals for food, and perhaps it's morally wrong for us to choose to kill when we can choose not to, but we're biologically built to eat meat and vegetables, and I haven't yet decided that eating meat is entirely wrong for me.