1. Eating meat is morally neutral 2. There are many ethical ways butchering has been practiced for a long time 3. factory farming is unethical due to the abuse faced in the animal's life, not bc it results in the animal's death 4. Ethically raised and sourced meat is expensive and/or hard to find in many places 5. *there are people who CANNOT subsist on a plant based diet* for varied reasons, largely disabled folks - (allergies/GI disorders that already limit what a person can eat, people in recovery from restrictive eating disorders, people with ARFID and other sensory processing disorders) and people with little money and time on their hands to cook. 6. Vegans who are adamant about animal rights often have a major blind spot as to human rights abuses; the meatpacking industry is terrible for those who work in it, yes, but people are laboring hard for your grains and produce too, often in unethical conditions and for little pay, and Vegans will treat you like you're doing some kinda "gotcha" and spit vitriol at you whenever you point this out 7. It is not Wrong to eat only plant based certainly but when people start acting like it gives them a moral highground it shows starkly how little regard for fellow humans these people have 8. Just because YOU are disabled/broke/etc and can sustain veganism does not give you permission to harass somebody who says their disability or finances prevent it 9. The most ethical way to eat, if you can achieve it, is by buying things with a short supply chain that were grown locally by properly-paid laborers
10. there is currently no way to get vitamin B12 in a vegan diet without supplementing, and vegans have increased risk of nutrient deficiencies unless they meticulously plan their diet and/or take other supplements as well. I don't love the idea of advocating for a wholesale switch to a diet reliant on vitamin/supplement companies' products
11. leather, which is a very useful material for many purposes, is a byproduct of the beef industry. all currently available leather alternatives are plastic, which causes large-scale environmental destruction including but not limited to animal habitat loss (yes, even the "pineapple" and "cactus" leathers- they're processed with so much plastic that they are essentially just plastic by the end). no beef = no leather = increasing plastic dependence. ditto wool, but this is about materials related to eating animals, so. leaving that out for now
