Question and answer day. Someone wrote in with this: Hi, Im exploring veganism for the first time in earnest, but now Im having trouble finding a justification for eating plants. I dont want to be responsible for ending the life of ANY being earlier than it would have otherwise lived. Animals are alive, and plants are alive. If I eat meat, I ended that animals life early, and if I eat a plant, I ended that plants life early. Why is it OK to end a plants life prematurely, just because its not as aware as animals are? And if the idea is not to kill a living being that is aware of being killed, if you stun the animal, its not aware its being killed, right? Whereas they apparently just discovered that plants ARE aware theyre being killed: inhabitat/plants-know-when-theyre-being-eaten-and-they-dont-appreciate-it/ . And if the problem is bringing beings into existence for our own use and controlling their environment for our own use, dont we do that as much if not more with the plants we eat than with the animals we eat? This may all sound silly, but apparently plants are a lot more aware than most of us thought. Check out What Plants Know by Daniel Chamovitz. But Im very new to this, so Id love to hear from an expert like you. :) Thanks a lot for your time, and be well, _______ And I responded: Hi ______, Yes, plants are living things but they are not sentient, nor do they possess a central nervous system and therefore pulling a carrot from the ground or picking an apple from a tree does not have the same moral implications as confining, torturing and finally slitting a sentient animals throat. This argument is used by those who wish to justify their meat consumption by claiming that because both plants and animals feel pain, there is no ethical difference between killing plants for food and killing animals for food. The truth is that plants, when stressed, release a chemical called ethylene. This chemical indicates that the plant needs to increase cell growth or take other measures against the perceived stressor. Scientists measured levels of ethylene released from stressed plants by “listening” to them using lasers until a certain frequency was measured. While this research shows that plants might have a stress-avoidance response, it is quite a stretch to refer to this as pain. It is even more erroneous to equate this response with the pain suffered by animals and human beings. Plants lack nerve endings, brains, hormones, and other structures that would allow them to experience pain. They also lack the ability to move away from sources of stress, an evolutionary trait linked with the ability to feel pain. The argument that plants feel pain and suffer and that killing them is as bad as killing animals is weak and illogical. Those who use this argument to justify their continued consumption of meat should attempt to approach the debate in a more logical, scientific manner. Even if someone was concerned that plants were being killed and exploited in the same way as animals then by eating meat they would be causing harm twice because the animals they eat would have already eaten plants before being slaughtered (for example, it takes several pounds of plants to produce just one pound of beef). Eating a vegan diet is not about a quest for personal purity, veganism is a way of living which seeks to exclude all forms of exploitation and cruelty to the animal kingdom, as far as is possible.. Nobody can prove that plants feel pain - we lack technology to prove this, we KNOW with great certainty however that the farmed animals we exploit for food experience intense pain and suffering. This should be motivation enough to treat other beings that we know have the capacity to suffer with as much compassion and consideration as we can. Furthermore the difference is that in general we cannot live without using plants; we can, however, live perfectly well without causing deliberate suffering (and death) to billions of farmed animals. Thanks, Robert.
Posted on: Tue, 28 Oct 2014 22:02:14 +0000