I'm a meat eater, but I live with a vegetarian (who's been so for decades). I do believe that in general, it is natural for us to eat a certain amount of animal protein. It is possible to live healthily and naturally without that, but you have to work harder to balance your diet with the right additions.

In general I think we eat too much, too crappily, we cook too little and I don't like the meat factories. As a consumer there is a lot a meat eater can do to live ethically. I eat burgers in certain places and restaurants that have the ecological guarantee (and humane guarantee, they give you the full information). I do eat in other restaurants too sometimes, but am more careful with my picks.
When I buy meat I do buy it either with a guarantee or from an eco farm. For a while my family where share holders in such a farm, which automatically gave us shares in fruits, meat and veggies, and we saw for ourselves how well they treated the chickens, pigs and sheep.
All this does cost more, and takes more planning, but amazingly it doesn't cost *that* much more.
People in general are just too sloppy and buy too much, they don't even consume all that they buy often enough. If you buy very high quality but limited amounts of meat, you think more about what you do with it. We are not rich in the least, but we don't go out to eat that much, and we cook.

There is a big market for ethical eating out there, people just need to push more, and investigate more. The main problem here, that I can see, is consumer laziness.
I'll never give up my meat and become vegetarian, but I do love animals.