Morality of Eating Meat

I am glad somebody raised this issue.  I have long held that factory farms are the problem and that keeping animals on a family or village farm that are integrated members of the farm that give and recieve care and value are morally justified especially it they are eaten in moderation, (not greedy, selfish and childish.)  This article challenges even this position.

    “The question is not, Can they reason? nor, Can they talk? but, Can they suffer? Why should the law refuse its protection to any sensitive being? … The time will come when humanity will extend its mantle over everything which breathes … ” Jeremy Bentham, father of the theory of utilitarianism

     Making factory farming more humane misses the point of immorality and injustice of the use of animals as resources. Indeed, there are those philosophers who believed that animals do not have moral status equal to humans. Human exceptionalism
     Human exceptionalism is based on the premise that humans have superior abilities compared to other animals. For example, humans can have social relationships, in particular family relationships; they also have the ability to use language; they can reason and feel pain.           French philosopher Rene Descartes

     More astute observations and scientific studies, however, have shown that animals do experience pain analogous to humans and have feelings. For example, elephants have complex emotional lives, including grieving for loved ones, and complex social and family relationships.
     Animals can reason, communicate with one another, possibly use language in some cases and behave morally.
     Thus, excluding animals from moral consideration and eating animals cannot be justified because they lack these characteristics.

https://www.alternet.org/heres-what-philosophers-have-say-about-eating-meat?src=newsletter1095151