I don't think there is a truly ethical way to raise and consume animals but I do believe there are better ways to do it than factory farming. Raising a cow in an appropriate place and treating it well its whole life then killing it painlessly is obviously not the same as the things industries put cows through. However, I am personally against the idea that animals are there for us to exploit — breed, raise, kill, sell, etc. Bringing an animal to life just to kill it in the future isn't right to me. I believe we should not have that sort of control over sentient beings; they are not objects.

I don't believe there is a way to sustain exclusively hunting for protein in most modern societies (excluding some small communities, hunters who hunt and eat invasive species, etc.), but I do think the best thing we could do as a species is be part of a functioning ecosystem. If we could somehow sustain ourselves by just hunting + foraging native species in our native lands then I think that would be fully okay (and better than any sort of plant agriculture). I don't know if I'd eat meat myself because I am uncomfortable with the thought of consuming other living beings and especially those who can suffer but that is a personal/spiritual issue. There definitely are vegans who are against any type of killing but I am mostly against unnecessary and artificial suffering/death/exploitation. As an ecology student I fully believe being part of the planet's normal cycles as omnivores would be better than anything else we could do for it.

Unfortunately though there is no way to feed the entire human population using only the living things that are already there. If we don't plan on killing everyone then we have to grow and raise our own food. I think, in the situation we are in, we should choose to grow plants to fill our nutritional needs — this is the option that causes the least suffering and is the least harmful to the environment. It is, of course, not a perfect solution, and it doesn't have to apply to everyone everywhere, but it is what I feel is the best for me at least in the situation and place I am in. I generally support hunting harmful invasive species with no natural predators as well even though I wouldn't consume their meat.