Vegetarians/Vegans, how do you rationalise killing plants for food?

Question

They obviously have a life also, and although they might not be as intelligent as human or some animals, studies have shown repeatedly that they feel and respond to pain.

Please explain your reasoning.

I mean this in the best possible way, and I'm not criticising, I'm just curious more than anything.

Answer 1

Mostly they do this because they feel sorry for animals and they rationalize that plants feel less pain than animals do. The problem their forgetting is that, nobody really cares and even if they don't eat meat, thousands of others will (including animals in the wilderness). Silly humans really. They also have the infamous, it takes twelve grains to feed one cow, meanwhile one grain will feed hundreds of humans arguement. They forget that by doing that they are stealing food from the animals and that if the whole world did this, animals would starve to death.  

Answer 2

Although a plant may feel pain to some extent maybe it's just instinct and trying to survive or what ever. I don't think that plants can suffer like an animal or human can. Might feel pain but they don't have any form of intelegence as far as I know so yeah I think your brain plays a big part in you feeling pain and stuff.

Bottem line is animals are treated horribly to fill a heartless greedy persons wallet. I don't support anyone who does that to animals, excially to make money from it.

Answer 3

Many vegetarians dont eat meat simply because they do not enjoy it! And/or, they realise they can have a healthier diet if they cut it out. Don't assume that all of them are non-carnivores for the reasons you think they are.

Answer 4

Plants do not feel pain.  They lack the brain and the central nervous system that would allow them to feel pain.  There is also no reason for them to feel pain.  

PLUS meat eaters consume way more plants than vegetarians by eating them second hand through the animals.

Answer 5

I need to eat something or I will die. I can choose to eat animals, plants or both. I choose to eat just plants.

Answer 6

One of the reasons vegetarians don't eat meat is because of the way the animals are treated. They are brutally slaughtered in a disgusting manner. The way they are housed is horrible. At least plants get to grow in a field and have as much room as they would in the wild.

Answer 7

I'm amazed that this question even gets asked. If this question is serious, god have mercy on you.

Plants don't feel pain and are not sentient.

Ethan, no study has shown that the plants "feel" anything. It is a chemical based reaction. Plants don't have anything to process sensations with so they cannot feel. Their responses are no more conscious than an ice cube melting in the heat.

Answer 8

"Bhahavad Gita"contains a passage that allows plant eating.As Jesus allowed to eat anything,so Krishna allowed to eat plants

Answer 9

No, research has NOT shown that plants feel pain.

The research that everyone seems to reach back to and quote just simply does NOT exist. I would know, I have pretty much turned two different university libraries upside down to find it. All I found was some quackery from years and years ago that has since been this proven, which was sponsored by the people that brought you Scientology - it was part of their reasoning for other strange behaviors they had. You can find pictures of the religion's founder with machinery and probes hooked up to a plant, which makes me laugh every time I see it.

Plants respond to environmental stimuli on a very basic, chemical level. They don't feel pain.

To feel pain, you need a nervous system. It is scientifically impossible to feel pain even if you have a MALfunctioning nervous system - for instance, certain human beings are even born with this condition and they never feel pain. If you have no nervous system to start with, you don't feel pain, period.

Plants, however, ARE hardwired to survive. They react cellularly to stimulus (like which direction sunlight is coming from, or if they are scraped or nearly uprooted) and through very basic intercellular messaging, they begin to regenerate, grow, respond or otherwise manipulate themselves to fit the environment better. Just like bacteria, just like prokaryotes - neither of which feel or have nervous systems either.

Animals have nervous systems and animals can feel pain. The pain you feel is the same as the pain a fish feels when it's gutted, the same a rat feels when it's smashed with a rock, the same pain a kitten feels when some savage little kids pelt it with a BB gun, the same pain that a chimp feels when it breaks it's leg. Pain, the chemical process, the way the brain flares up and responds, is the SAME among just about all animals, excluding a few forms of shellfish that have little to no nervous system (who are the only animals who's ability to feel pain is questioned).

As for concern for plants - if you still feel concerned about plants dying, GOOD. So do I and so do most vegetarians.

If you worry about plants, you should eat them and not animals.

Why? Because the animals you eat were raised on a diet that is grain and soy intensive. Chickens, pigs, cows - they are forcefed a bioengineered, complex diet of thousands of pounds of grain. They have to eat not only to maintain their weight but to even gain hundreds of pounds a year (like cattle do). The amount of meat produced in return is laughably less. It averages about 16 pounds of grain and 2,500 gallons of water to make ONE SINGLE pound of meat.

That means that it takes more land, more plants, hundreds of gallons more water to produce a much smaller and much more inefficient quantity of meat (calorically as well as economically). Factory farming, with the absolute inhumane practices it employs, struggles to curtail how much space animals have and just how much food and chemicals you can put in an animal, all to make them pile on top of one another, cost as little as possible to bloat up, and then to slaughter them as fast as possible once it's all over. And even with factory farming, these statistics still hold up. They are confirmed by the National Cattleman's Association and other pro-meat lobbyists and these are cold hard facts, unlike pseudoscience that you couldn't even source.

If you had any medical or science-based background, you'd understand basic differences between plants and animals. Our structure is completely different.

If you had the proper background you would never EVER spout "plants can feel pain", that is like saying "The Earth Is Flat". All that we have come to understand about medical science, the brain, nervous systems - that's all already been proven and we have moved on from that point. Plants don't have nervous systems, it's absolutely clear. They cannot scream, they cannot react in any way beyond a basic chemical level.

To say anything less, to even go back to the throwback knowledge of centuries ago where nobody knew their butt from their elbow about medicine and biology, would be a huge discredit to your own intelligence and the intelligence of the tens of thousands of credible researchers that have more than proven it since then.

I'd suggest Microbiology and Biology courses in college to learn primary differences between plants, bacteria, primtive organisms and complex ones like animals.

Answer 10

The science isn't definitive. It's not fact that they are sentient or even feel pain. Their responses appear to be purely biological and only the much higher plant life have anything even resembling neurotransmittors floating around.

Plants aren't sentient, animals are. Animals are aware of their own existence. They have a very unique viewpoint of the world - their own. They feel pain and fear their own demise. They have their own purposes in life so weren't put here for the human animal's entertainment, breakfast, hunting pleasure, lab experiment, milkshake, shoes, belt or hamburger. They are no more made for humans than black people were for whites or women for men. This is animal rights and it is the main reason why people are vegan and I think the reason the majority of vegetarians are so, even though animals in the egg and dairy industry are treated hoffically as well (forcefully inseminated, babies kidnapped, abused and killed before they reach adulthood, kept in poor conditions even in 'free range' and 'organic' systems).

Let's say for arguments sake that plants are sentient, like animals. It takes 16lb of grain to produce 1lb of meat, so for a meat-eater to eat 1lb of meat, they've helped kill that animal and have 'killed' 16 pounds of plant life as well. Vegans eat 1lb of grain instead. They haven't killed any animals and have caused the 'death' of 16x less plant life. Even if plants were actually sentient, the vegan is causing far less damage.

Vegans don't claim to be perfect. It's not moral high ground or holy or anything. The philosophy of veganism is to do your utmost not to harm other animals, not to be perfect and pure. I'm sure I eat things with a bit of whey powder in accidentally at times, and there are some animal deaths even with the organic crops I eat, but I know I'm causing far less suffering than someone who isn't trying at all, far less. That's the difference, most people don't even think about the effect of what they're doing on animals and the environment (and their own health) vegans are putting the effort in, even if it isn't 'perfect' it's nearly as far as you can go to minimise the suffering you cause completely.

Have you heard of fruitatarians? They only eat food which plants did not have to be completely destroyed for. So no carrots, potatos, onions etc. They eat fruit, sprouting beans, seeds etc. as far as I know. If plants are proven to be sentient, this is surely the way I would go. But how on earth will the population move towards a fruitatarian diet if they won't respect the rights of billions of animals that we know for sure, right now, are sentient.

Even if plants are sentient, veganism is a way of reducing our impact on them by more than ten fold and paving the way to a plant friendly future!

Answer 11

Studies have NOT repeatedly shown that plants feel and respond to pain.  There would be no adaptive reason for a plant, who cannot flee or fight back against a painful stimulus, to feel pain.  They do not have nerves, they do not have brains, they do not have any of the physiological structures necessary to experience pain.  What studies have shown is that some plants react chemically to certain stimuli, which is not the same thing as suffering pain.

And even if they did, I am a living, breathing organism and nature designed me to require food to sustain my life.  I have as much right to nourish myself as any plant animal, fungi or flatworm on this planet.  A diet based on plants allows me to nourish my body with the least amount of suffering possible.

Not to mention that meat eaters are responsible for the "suffering" of far more plants than vegans.  I "torture" only the plants I eat.  You are responsible for the wholesale slaughter of pounds and pounds of grain and soybeans and grasses to feed the livestock you eat, and on top of that, you eat plants directly, too.  Before you cry about veg*ns harming the poor plants, consider your own wanton destruction.

And, finally, there are reasons beyond cruelty to switch to a plant-based diet.  Switching to a vegan diet is far more sustainable ecologically, speaking.  Switching from an omnivorous diet to a vegan diet has been compared to trading in your SUV for a bicycle.  It's one of the most powerful choices an individual can make to lessen their carbon footprint.

Answer 12

1. Animal pain is obvious and easy for humans to relate to. Plant "pain" requires some kind of bizarre machine to detect. Even if scientists are saying plants feel pain it's still easy to be skeptical about it because it clearly isn't anything like the pain felt by animals.

If I stepped on my dog's foot, she will yelp. I picked some tomatoes from my garden a few minutes ago and I heard nothing.

2. We can't eat rocks.

Answer 13

I have never seen a vegetable respond to pain.

Answer 14

Hi there!

Yes, this is a very common question. But I believe that it is ethical to eat plants because although they do respond to pain, they can't actually feel or suffer from it like animals and humans do.

Hope that helps! :)

Answer 15

I think one of the major reasons why some people decide to live a veggie lifestyle is that livestock is often treated poorly. The lives of those animals prior to their slaughter, is far from what can be described as quality (meaning that they are not allowed to roam, graze, and/or often abused in some manner).  Deciding not to eat animal based foods is in part a way to boycott the meat industry for their practices. Many vegans/vegetarians who live with partners who are omnivores often compromise by saying that they would be more comfortable if their partners purchased pasture raised meat instead of other brands that may not have been as concerned for the animals' well being during their lives.  I have yet to hear about similar harsh or poor treatment of plants (that are used for food) to the point where certain produce/farming outfits need to be boycotted as well.  

Answer 16

I don't, I think people can eat meat all they want. Who am I to tell someone what they can and can't eat? I would be upset if someone told me I HAD to eat meat, why should I tell them that they HAVE to refrain from eating it?

I don't eat meat because I honestly don't like it.