While I don't eat meat, I don't immediately say it's for whale-hugging reasons at the top of the list because most people are callous and unmoved by animal abuse that they condone with their silence and continued addiction to an unsustainable food source.

It's difficult to get a man to stop eating meat when his enjoyment depends on his not understanding its consequences. - adapted from Upton Sinclair

In case you were wondering, the following list of reasons speaks more to people's self-preservation than their empathy (which they lack):

1. Pandemic risk to people from zoonotic evolution of viruses, bacteria and fungi by having tens of thousands of animals crammed next to each other and people getting in and cleaning up after them. Like a college dorm, diseases spread rapidly in factory farms.

2. Antibiotic resistance evolution. Animals are given antibiotics to grow faster, and like overprescribing, they become less effective on the animals and on people too.

3. About 1/3 of human-caused CO2 and methane emissions (GHG). Eating meat is playing very delayed Russian roulette.

4. Factory farms pollute air, water and soil widely around, downstream and into the oceans. Hog farms have lakes of liquid shit that is sprayed into the air.

Distant 5. Animal cruelty.