If you wish to not consume meat, by all means, that is your right. But please, if you try to touch my steak, you will understand WHY the second amendment exists. And how much I support it.
For those who constantly talk about how bad modern farming practices are, well, have YOU ever tried to grow food? Not talking about the chia-herb garden on the window sill, but enough food to support your family? Or how about enough to sell to the local mom and pop grocery store so that all the folks who cannot or will not grow their own food can eat? Ever think about how much food it takes to feed a small town, let alone a large city? New York, or maybe Tokyo? Or London or Melbourne or any other?
I'm not arguing that all modern farming practices are the best or even good. But I would suggest that like in ANY OTHER industry, things are done the way they are for a reason. Not ALWAYS a good or beneficial reason, but there IS a reason behind it.
Just like many practices are common in EE because it is most efficient, or most profitable, or just produces the best quality product, so too can those reasons apply to farming.
But so few people even think about growing their own food anymore, that it has become an easy whipping-post industry.
For goodness sakes, one of the local dairies in WA state actually supplies MATRESSES for their cows, so the cow is more comfortable and produces better milk. Is the milk really better? Dunno. But my guess is it helps keep the Green Peace nuts at bay. No not all of them are nut-jobs. But the US government DOES classify Green Peace, or at least some of it's more radical branches, as a terrorist organization. What does THAT tell you?
Sorry for the mini-rant, but I grew up in a farming town. I don't claim to be a farmer, most we ever did was a garden and some chickens. BUT it bothers me when people that can't tell you what a corn stalk looks like try to complain that farmers are doing their job wrong.