Omnivore's Dilemma The research question to be approached in this paper: Is there a link between morality and vegetarianism? The answer is: Yes there is a link between ethics and moral values when it comes to substituting healthy vegetables for meat raised in hideously unclean, unhealthy, inhumane conditions. Thesis: More Americans are turning away from red meat because of the appalling conditions under which cattle are raised and slaughtered on factory farms, and because killing animals represents an unethical, inhumane way to fill the nutritional needs of humans.

Meat, Morality, and Vegetarianism

Penn State Philosophy Professor Evelyn B. Pluhar makes a series of cogent points about the raising of meat on factory farms: a) science has demonstrated that factory farming is "an increasingly urgent danger to human health, the environment, and nonhuman animal welfare"; b) vegetarian food production is a viable alternative to factory farming; and c) everyone, "even vegetarians,...

Department of Agriculture reports that in 2007, 10.378 billion "land animals were slaughtered for food" (456). Moreover, in 1980 Americans were consuming 234 pounds per capita but by 2007 that number has grown to 273 pounds per capita, Pluhar continues (456). What most researchers don't delve into vis-a-vis factory farms and ethics are the "emotional effects" that workers at factory farms suffer from. A slaughterhouse expert referenced by Pluhar (Temple Grandin) asserts that it is commonplace for factory farm employees "…to become sadistic, literally brutalized by what they must do hourly and daily" (456).
Ethically, vegetarians are taking the "moral ground" by pointing out that inflicting pain and death on animals is…