The Apex Predator Fallacy

“We’re at the top of the food chain,” so shouldn’t I just accept that it’s the natural order of things?

If it’s true that this is just the natural order of things, then any animals’ suffering is justified and I can continue eating meat without moral concern.

1. We Aren’t Even in a Food Chain

A food web or food chain is a natural, wild ecosystem where species co-evolve and energy flows through organic interactions.

Factory farming is not a natural ecosystem! It is an artificial, indoor supply chain! Breeding genetically modified animals in warehouses, feeding them monocrops, and buying shrink-wrapped muscle in an air-conditioned Tesco isn’t “natural”. Over the years, we have engineered a system specifically to bypass being in a food chain.

2. We Aren’t Apex Predators (The Technicality)

Aren’t we the so called “apex predator”? Well, ecology has a strict mathematical scale for this called a Trophic Level (ranging from 1 for plants to 5.5 for polar bears).

• Researchers in PNAS calculated the human trophic level at 2.21. Biologically, we sit in the middle of the food chain, on par with pigs and anchovies.
• True apex predators are obligate carnivores and they must kill and eat meat to survive. Humans are not. For a lion, killing is biological survival whereas for a human at a supermarket, buying meat is a choice.

3. Does Might = Right?

Humans are undeniably the dominant species on the planet. But does being stronger give us the moral right to inflict unnecessary suffering on those who are weaker?

Using human power to justify cruelty is simply the belief that “Might Makes Right.” Shouldn’t we use our power to protect and uplift those who are weaker instead?

The Bottom Line

We are not hunting in a wild food chain, we are not obligate carnivores, and power does not make cruelty right. There’s nothing “natural” about how this is done right now!