Eating Less Meat

Peter Singer is broadly accredited with launching the modern animal welfare movement with his book Animal Liberation (1975).  As a utilitarian Singer argues that we should not test products on animals, nor eat their meat when this causes these animals avoidable pain.  Maybe you could test a cancer drug on an animal if it will likely save many human lives.  However, because animals can feel pain we shouldn't treat them poorly; like humans, it's morally wrong to needlessly harm animals.

With the growth of Human Rights literature there has been a concurrent rise in animal rights philosophy.  Like humans, animals are posited as beings with dignity and therefore deserved of a certain level of treatment.  New Zealand, for example, is one of the first countries to grant rights to higher apes therefore banning all research upon them.

Even if you don't think either of these positions is wholly convincing, they should give pause for reflection, and until you've reached a more considered position, maybe eating less meat is a good first step.  Graham Hill's video below gives some good reasons why we should eat less meat, even if you don't want to be a 'hardcore' vegetarian or don't think you could give up meat cold-turkey (excuse the pun).