We're omnivores by nature, just check out our dentition. As omnivores, living in a society where literally everything possibly edible is available, we can choose what we eat (insofar as we can afford it or can grow it ourselves).

There are absolute physical requirements for our nutrition: protein, vitamins, liquids, other nutrients, all fairly well known. For health, the requirements need to be met (they vary by gender and change with age). There are usually lots of food (and supplement) sources for these requirements.

The questions arise of what to eat when we consider sources of nutrition; growing, harvesting and distribution; types of soils (can't have minerals in the food if they're not in the soil); and so forth. Some questions are ethical; some interrelated questions are practical.

So first I considered meat, fish, eggs, milk and milk products.

I've seen feed lots and slaughterhouses. Terrible conditions, sick animals processed, cows tortured to keep them moving. Plus all the distribution costs of storage, shipping. The injections of hormones, antibiotics; the brining of flesh to plump it up. All of these issues have led me to a great reluctance to eat beef or pork; however, I would have no objection to eating meat raised properly, slaughtered humanely, and locally shipped.

Though I wonder sometimes if my boycott of meat will make any difference at all to the mega meat packing corporations. But for my own karma, it must be so.

I'm more of a carnivore when it comes to chicken and eggs and wild-caught fish. I have sources for those items where the animals live free or loose in the yard (free range), no hormones or antibiotics are used. The sources are far more local than those for meat, for the most part.

Milk comes from cows penned up in tight quarters, never seeing the light of day, hormones to increase milk production, antibiotics to stave off infections likely in such close conditions. When I find a source of milk and cheese products from cows allowed to graze out in the open, I stock up, because they are hard to find.

Bottom line: I don't think it's wrong per se to eat meat or fish, but I do think we should refuse to eat meat produced inhumanely and we should work to improve the animals' conditions.