Against Eating Humanely Raised Meat: Revisiting Fred's Basement

In "Puppies, Pigs, and People: Eating Meat and Marginal Cases," Alastair Norcross (2004) uses a thought experiment he calls "Fred's Basement" to argue that consuming factory-farmed meat is morally equivalent to torturing and killing puppies in order to enjoy the taste of chocolate. Thus, he concludes that consuming factoryfarmed meat is morally wrong. Although Norcross leaves open the possibility that consuming humanely raised meat is morally permissible, I contend that his basic argumentative approach rules it out. In this article, therefore, I extend Norcross's thought experiment in hopes of convincing readers that consuming humanely raised meat is morally wrong.