Human beings have evolved high intelligence and therefore an incredibly complex emotional and ethical awareness that I don't know if any other animal on the planet shares.
In my view, humans are conditioned by evolution to consume and digest meat as well as other foods. But because humans have happened upon being very special in our capacity for thought, and the ease at which we can live, I don't think that our nature can be an objective excuse for any behaviour.
I also don't see eating meat as being objectively right or wrong. But it has to be said that human beings have chosen a path of separation from normal food chains and we are constantly trying to separate ourselves from nature. If this is what we want, we can't use our instinct or our nature as a crutch for difficult decisions.
And if you are for removing meat consumption from the equation, or farther still removing dependency on animals for food and materials all together, than you do have to consider how humans have created various creatures in our history, that being domesticated, now depend on us for the survival of their species.
As far as cannibalism: when it comes to survival... you do what you have to. But eating another person would be the option after the last option.
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