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I'm a vegetarian, and for the same reasons. I suppose the thinking is consistent, it's very strictly consequentialist though. I'm more or less a consequentialist myself, but there is still a bit of something in the act - I guess I'm just surprised that with him holding that view he isn't grossed out by eating meat that came into his possession via the agri-business machine he takes issue with.

Would he be able to persuade you to give up meat for a day regardless of what he did?

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no, and i think that's what is key. he's tried to convince me before to become a vegetarian to no avail. I think that some of his points have merit, but i'm already allergic to milk and eggs, so I'd basically have to be a vegan. And i don't feel strongly enough about his points to go through the hassle of having a diet that restricted.

So given that there's no way he could convince me to give up meat for a day otherwise, he can be sure that he wouldn't be passing up a chance to lessen the total meat demand even below the status quo.

I'm not sure how he would respond to the point of being grossed out by eating meat provided to him by the very business he is rallying against. However, I would speculate that he takes pride in his beliefs being based solely on logic. Thus, he might feel that letting that point influence his judgement would be succumbing to an irrelevant emotional factor.