An Animal's Place

I have always been a meat eater. I have dated girls who were vegetarians and my wife was a vegetarian when I met her (she now eats fish and poultry). I have never had a problem with vegetarians and I have always thought about becoming one one day. Pepperoni pizza is pretty much the only thing stopping me. There are a lot of people who think that eating meat is wrong for moral reasons. Pollan talks about these people in his article, An Animal's Place. I have a hard time with the idea that every single living being (even fruit flies and trees) is deserving of the same rights as humans. This idea is crazy. People who believe this think that fruit should only be eaten if it has fallen from the tree branch and animals have rights.
I am more inclined to believe that domesticated animals on farms should be able to live the lives they are meant to live. This is a life of work in the fields aerating and fertilising the soil. Then after a long happy life they are killed in a quick and relatively painless manner so they can be eaten or sold by the farmer. American farms up to the Nixon era were small family-run farms where animals had their place and the wholesale slaughter of confined steroid filled animals was largely non-existent. Today, the fact is that small open farms are few and far between while the mega farms and meat processing plants are everywhere.
The article is summed up when Pollan proposes the idea that meat processors be open to the public so everyone can see the type of life these poor unfortunate animals lead. This would probably lead to better treatment for the animals and many people would decrease or elininate meat from theri diet. People are not concerned with the lives of the meat they eat. It is not an issue in front of them so most people do not even think about it. Pollan does not think vegetarianism is the answer or even a practical option either. Pollan is for eating meat but getting it from a farm or processing plant that treats the animals with dignity and lets them live the life they were meant to live. This is exactly what I believe. I do not think I could stop eating meat but I buy it locally from free range farms.