I think you've not read much literature from the animal welfare movement (aka 'animal right'). Consider reading the classic 'Animal Liberation' by Peter Singer. You would benefit from reading others' thoughts on this and thinking more deeply about the issue.
You claim "feeding people is a necessity" and that it somehow balances out what we do to animals. You certainly know people can live well without animal parts in their diet. Even if by some bizarre reason humans required animal flesh in their mouths, it wouldn't imply that doing anything we want to animals would be appropriate.
Torturing a cow for 1 year wouldn't be appropriate if we could get the same cow meat without the torture.
Please learn about how animals are treated before you "find it morally ambivalent"
Vegan diets cause malnutrition and perhaps even psychological changes.
Due to the suffering of wild animals, eating beef is probably net negative for total animal suffering because a cow only has 1 brain for a ton of biomass.
You make a very bold claim that vegan diets cause malnutrition. You probably don't mean to say vegan diets inherently do this -- simply that many people who try don't know how to balance their diet, right?
Let's assume for the sake of argument that malnutrition cuts a human life short by 1 year. Does this now justify torturing hundreds of animals for hundreds of years?
I'm trying to nudge people to think of any argument that results in "we can now torture animals".
At this current time, we don't need to abuse animals to eat animals, we only do it because it's cheaper. I doubt many people in company of family and friends could say 'saving $1' justifies torturing animals.
You claim "feeding people is a necessity" and that it somehow balances out what we do to animals. You certainly know people can live well without animal parts in their diet. Even if by some bizarre reason humans required animal flesh in their mouths, it wouldn't imply that doing anything we want to animals would be appropriate.
Torturing a cow for 1 year wouldn't be appropriate if we could get the same cow meat without the torture.
Please learn about how animals are treated before you "find it morally ambivalent"