How do vegans/vegetarian feel about hurting plants?

Question

Since vegetation can receive external stimuli and be affected by it, it's not a big leap to concider the fact that plants do in fact feel the equivalent of pain. So forcing plants to be grown in abnormal conditions only to be brutally cultivated should be concidered inhuman as well.

How can vegetarian favor the animal reign to the detriment of the vegetal reign?

Answer 1

Assume that you are actually serious concerned about plant welfare.

Humans need to eat something. Suppose they raise animals for food. What do those animals eat? Plants (or other animals that eat plants.)

So the thing to consider (in terms of plant welfare) is how do we reduce plant suffering? Well, for starters we could cause fewer plants to be "slaughtered" by eating them directly.

How do I know that consuming plants directly will end up killing fewer of them? Basic thermodynamics. Animals use up energy for survival, and produce heat, so some of the calories ingested go towards that and not towards adding to their mass. In terms of human energy consumption, this lost energy is waste.

By consuming plants directly, you cut out that wasted energy, and thus fewer plants suffer.

Answer 2

The truth of the matter is that we have to eat something. I don't completely buy your theory that plants feel and process pain in the way that humans and animals do, but okay let's go with it.

If you a vegan or vegetarian at least you are still hurting a less amount of life. If you eat meat you are not only killing plants painfully (going by your theory) but are also brutally slaughtering animals as well. I mean you do eat lettuce in salads, right? Or sticking some carrots with that roast beef you're scarfing down or chomping on green bean casserole during thanksgiving, right?

So, by your theory, vegans and vegetarians are still leading a less brutal life.

Answer 3

If you graduated from the first grade, you would know this answer. First, plants have no central nervous system, no heart, no brain. Second, I don't kill my plants when I harvest vegetables and fruits, I simply pick whats ripe, and the plant remains alive. I doubt you could do the same with a chicken-have a nugget, and the chicken remains alive? No, didnt think so. I have heard animals that are in pain whince and scream. I have an extensive indoor and outdoor garden-I have yet to hear a plant, fruit, herb, or veggie scream or make a sound. And, its pretty safe to assume that you eat both meat AND vegetables-so basically, as long as you satisty yourself, you dont really give a hoot what lives or dies, just so long as your belly and tastebuds are happy

Answer 4

There is no proof currently that plants feel anything like pain. When you stick a hot poker into a head of broccoli it smokes and may catch fire. Do the same thing to a dog and it will scream in pain and run away. A plant has no way to escape. Pain is a self preservation method animals have to let them know they are being harmed so that they can ESCAPE this harm. Because plants cannot escape harm being done to them it's completely pointless for plants to feel pain and therefore they do not.

Simply put, animals are sentient, plants are not.

Answer 5

Actually, it's a HUGE leap to assume that plants feel pain. Responding to stimuli is not a sign of pain. Can I ask where you did your botany research? Because when I did mine, one of the first things you learn is that plants are not animals and do not feel pain.

So, if *you* think that ALL life is equal, are you going to have baby flesh for dinner? Or was that breakfast? Maybe Virgin Buttocks for lunch tomorrow?

With billions of dollars being spent on health care for omnivores that have eaten themselves into cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and other ailments, why not hassle them? Vegetarians aren't hurting anyone by refusing meat. Why pick on them?

Answer 6

First off, "inhuman" would not be an appropriate term to use in this situation. Plants were placed on the planet by our Creator for the sole purpose of being food for humankind (assuming that you believe the Biblical account.....I do), and formed the basis of our original diet.

In addition, using plants for food would not constitute murder as they have no blood and - further - do not have the ability to think (rationally or otherwise) and so, cannot be "forced" nor FEEL "the equivalent of pain".

Answer 7

You kill less plants by eating them directly,by cycling food through livestock you lose 96% percent of the calories that you put into it.Animals raised for foods in the U.S. use of half of all the water used in the U.S. You can feed 100 kids rice,or only four of them meat.The least efficient plant food is tens times efficient as the most efficient animal food.The rate of repetitive stress injury for slaughterhouse employees is 35 times higher than it is for those with other manufacturing jobs,Human Rights Watch says "Meatpacking is the most dangerous job in America".For every acre of land plowed down for urban development,seven acres are cut down to grow food for animals or for grazing land for animals.If everyone in the U.S. reduced their meat consumption by 10%,it would free up enough land to grow food for 100 million people(there are about 20 million starving).Livestock in the US produce 20 times the excrement of the entire US population.If everyone in the U.S. went vegan,we could cut our imports on oil by 60%.Methane is one of the four greenhouse gasses that contributes to the environmental trend known as global warming. The 1.3 billion cattle in the world produce one fifth of all the methane emitted into the atmosphere.The direct and hidden costs of soil erosion and runoff in the US, mostly attributable to cattle and feed crop production, is estimated at $44 billion a year.Feeding the average meat-eating American requires 3-1/4 acres of land per year. Feeding a person who eats no food derived from animals requires only 1/6 acre per year. A scientist, reporting in the industry publication Confinement, calculated in 1976 that the planet's entire petroleum reserves would be exhausted in 13 years if the whole world were to take on the diet and technological methods of farming used in the U.S. So not only are killing more plants than I am,you are also using up tons of water,you are contributing to the killing of animals(26 billion),you are contributing to deforestation,you are contributing to world hunger,you are contributing to soil erosion,you are contributing to global warming,you are contributing to workers' injuries,you are contributing to enviromental pollution,and you are contributing to the war for oil.All of that for what,your own tasebuds?



You should feel really bad by now.
http://meat.org/

Answer 8

I'm guessing because they can't hear a plant scream in agony, I also noticed HarryMay did a great job in NOT answering the question.

Answer 9

just the same for people who eat meat, they are hurting animals, and it doesnt bother them.

Answer 10

i'm a vegetarian and i hurt plants, it doesn't bother me