The amount of meat you should eat is tough topic to cover because it’s impossible to say anything from either side of the debate (pro-meat or pro-vegetarian) without sounding preachy. In order to get over this, I always remind myself that just because someone is preachy (or even because someone is a hypocrite) doesn’t mean they’re necessarily wrong. How someone says something doesn’t necessarily tell you whether what they’re saying is right or not.

I’ve been on all sides of the issue. I was brought up eating meat on a regular basis twice a day (for lunch and dinner). For a short period (less than a year) I was a vegetarian but that died when I was in Panama eating chickens that were ethically raised (although I have to admit, I did eat some chickens that I didn’t know how they were raised). Then I sort lay the issue aside for a while I was enthralled of other issues. Now I’m sort of a middle of the roader on this issue although whether that’s because of diplomacy, pragmatism or an undeniable penchant for meat now and again, I’m not sure. I avoid meat when I can, eat it when I can’t (e.g. when someone’s made it for dinner) and, from time to time, I’ll order it at the restaurant.

The bottom line is that, though there’s a lot of information out there, the amount of meat you eat is a personal preference. But it shouldn’t be based on, “what you’ve always done before.” Here are some great resources on the issue that aren’t just extremists yelling in your ear. These are all people who have thought a lot about what they think about the issue of eating meat:

Have your meat and eat it too: Part 1, Part2 and Part 3 – A great three part series on CBC’s Ideas that comes at this issue from all sides. There’s a great diversity of opinion in here.

The Omnivore’s Dilemma. This is Michael Pollan’s most famous book which compares food from industrial, pastoral and foraging agriculture. Pollan always has a great mix of anecdote, narrative and evidence that both educates and entertains. His haiku-like mantra–eat food, not too much, mostly plants–is my food philosophy of choice. Here’s Pollan promoting his most recent book if you prefer him in video form.

Singer, The Way We Eat (interview). and Singer, Ethics in an Age of Darwin(interview). Peter Singer is an icon of the vegetarian movement and he’s thought his vegetarianism through more thouroughly than anyone else has thought through what they eat. His argument for vegetarianism in these interviews is one that I’ve never heard anywhere else before: using the ethics of Darwin.

And lastly, an interview with the makers of Food Inc., a recent documentary about the American food industry.

Watch the full episode. See more NOW on PBS.