Why do vegans eat plants?

Question

Those were technically living at a certain point just as animals where.

Answer 1

Vegans eat plants for many reasons. Some are logical reasons, others are not. Many eat plants rather than animals because plants do not feel pain the way that animals do and would rather not inflict pain. Others do it because they think it is wrong to eat something that has a face or reminds them of people (as one answerer has already shown). Chosing of one life over another just because it has and has eyes and a heart seems rather silly. It's also somewhat vain in that it requires something to be like oneself in order to be worthy of living.

The belief that plants are completely unaware and unfeeling is somewhat inaccurate. The roots of plants grow towards gravity and the stems/leaves grow away from it because they sense it. Plants breathe. Flowers close up or follow light because of conditions that the plant senses. Did you know that many plants can sense when they are being touched or eaten and react accordingly? Many plants can immediately sense when an herbivore is eating their leaves and release chemicals that can make the leaves taste bad, as well as release chemicals into the air. These chemicals warn other plants to start producing these volatile chemicals to ward off herbivores, and they can also attract predator insects like wasps to the area. These immediate reactions show that plants are not only aware but don't want to be eaten, either. They might not show it in the same way that animals do or sense things in the same way, but saying that they are not sentient and therefore worth less than animals is ridiculous.

And people are not "designed" to strictly eat plants. We are designed for both vegetation and flesh -- omnivores. Take a look at an herbivore's digestive tract and see the difference. It's part of what made us so successful in evolution.

Answer 2

Some people say they're not vegetarian because they love animals, but because they hate plants. But that is, of course, a JOKE.

If you really, really, really care about the plants--and I don't think you do; I think you're trolling with a question that's been asked more times than there are grains of sand on a beach--then you should go vegan. I mean, the cows, chickens, pigs, ducks, geese, etc., you eat have to eat something. And it takes roughly three to fifteen pounds of plant food (depending on the animal) to produce a pound of animal food. So you meat-eaters are responsible for killing even MORE plants than vegans are.

Answer 3

Would you eat your cousin? Did you realize that your cousins rump roast is just as good as a cow's? The difference between a plant and an animal is that a plant does not have the same makings as a human being. They don't have minds, and thus cannot think. If they cannot think, then they aren't alive. They grow, but so does hair. Is hair alive? No. Hair grows on dead people.

Many vegans, such as myself, do not eat meat because it comes from our cousins, and it is murder. Animals ARE humans, just on the lower chain of evolution.

Sure, other animals eat each other, but that's because they aren't as talented with tools as we are. We know that eating a can of beans with an apple and some salad will give you the same protein, sugar, salt and carbohydrates that a T-Bone does...

BUT IT'S NOT MURDER! When animals evolve, they began to eat fruits and vegetables. Check out the monkey. Very few monkeys are cannibals or carnivores.

Answer 4

They're healthier, people were designed to eat mostly plants, eating an animal that was walking around and thinking and communicating is just disturbing. Look into a cat or dog's eyes and tell me you would eat them. What's so different about a cow or pig?

Answer 5

If you are going to go that extreme then maybe you should become a fruitarian? Fruitarians eat only the parts of plants that can be taken without killing the plant or will just naturally fall off the plant.

edit: Those who think plants can't sense pain are completely wrong. Check out Chris Bird's "the secret life of plants".

Answer 6

Because the definition of a vegan is someone who eats no animal products.

Answer 7

Most of the parts we eat off of plants don't cause the plant to die anyway.... If you eat an apple it doesn't kill the tree...

Answer 8

Yes, plants are living things, too. The difference is that a potato doesn't run from you screaming in pain when you stab it. That makes it okay to eat in my book.

Answer 9

What else do you suggest we eat, rocks? Veganism has nothing to do with preserving life. It's about preventing pain and needless cruelty.

Answer 10

The same reason trolls make internet postings intended to incite inflammatory, rhetoric-ridden responses, deary: by definition, that's a damned big part of what they do! :)