somebody/thing has to be at the top of the food chain, it's a dirty job but somebody's gotta do it - it's the nature of our particular universe that we inhabit. yes we have a conscious choice of what we shove into our 'pie-hole'. as someone will undoubtedly point out, it's the method of getting your meat that matters - true but not to the meat.  we're all food to something sooner or later, we're constantly being consumed by microbes and other interesting flora and fauna do we begrudge them? it's their nature.  is meat ethical? probably not, is it moral? i'll leave that to the philosophers in he group