I would argue that we don't need an ethical reason to eat meat. We are animals, and part of our natural diet is other animals. We don't need an excuse to eat meat any more than a lion does.
To me, the ethical concerns are around HOW we eat meat - how we raise it/catch it, kill it, and whether we are wasteful in our use of it. We have the capacity to understand the suffering of other creatures, which gives us a responsibility to minimise any suffering they may experience at our hands.