Factory Farming

Here is a page on factory farms by The Humane Society of the United States. If you insist on eating meat, at least be choosy about the source. If you buy factory-farmed meat, you are supporting a most abominable institution. But why not eschew all meat, even if it's produced "humanely"? Wouldn't that reflect a commitment not to treat sentient beings as mere means to your ends? Animals are not resources for human use and consumption. They are fellow travelers, with lives and interests of their own. The interest in life is an ulterior interest, one that is necessary for the flourishing of all other interests. To deprive an animal of its life is to deprive it of the most valuable thing it has.