But I do see vegetarianism as the preferable option, for the reasons I gave before. Even if most of us just made a point of eating less meat and avoiding buying the factory-farmed stuff, there'd be a big reduction in animal suffering and extravagant use of resources.

Sigh. I thought giving up that religion stuff would allow me to live exactly as I pleased with no regrets. So this morality business is independent of religion. Who knew?

Maybe when we can grow meat in the lab ... we'll finally be in the clear. In the meantime, eating mammals strikes me as a kind of cannibalism, but I still do it because :

a) I like meat.
b) I have yet to have explained to me why eating humans (who have consented to it) is "wrong". The only coherent case that can be made against it is based on health issues, rather than morality.

Let me quickly add, I don't actually want to eat humans :-), I simply find cannibalism a fascinating context to discuss morality and ethics in.