Kimberly Hart wrote:
[snip]
> First point: I find it interesting that vegetarians who are concerned about
> animal welfare rarely discuss plant welfare. Just because a plant doesn't
> bleed and doesn't have a nervous system we cannot assume that it is beyond
> feeling. It is possible that plants do feel pain when we harvest their
> fruit and destroy their bodies. We may not recognize it as pain like humans
> experience, but who are we to say that they don't feel?
This is a common statement towards vegetarians, that plants may/do feel pain.
My answer, as a vegan, is: If plants -do- feel pain, then vegans are doing
more than non-vegans to minimize such pain. Consider this: By eating meat
from chicken, pigs and cattle, omnivores are causing more plants to die
then by eating the plants -directly-, as with a plant-based,
low-on-the-food-chain diet. In fact, SO much plant food is fed to
cattle and other "food" animals, that it takes 21 pounds of protein fed
to a calf to produce a single pound of animal protein for humans... that
is a less than a 5% return on our grain "investment."
>
> Second: In ecology organisms are divided into (generally) producers,
> consumers, and decomposers. If you do not photosynthesize or
> chemosynthesize, than you require the life of other organisms to survive.
> Fact of nature. Whether you eat a plant or animal, you are taking life.
> With plants, we may be able to eat only part of the organism, without its
> death, but we often take the life of an entire plant. For instance, when we
> eat grains, we are eating embryonic plants. There is a tiny plant embryo
> whose life we are taking. Life is life, regardless of whether you have
> blood, chlorophyll, or a "reasoning" brain.
Agreed... it -is- a cruel world, unfortunately. But I must again refer
you to the previous paragraph re: the amount of suffering necessary for
those who eat only plants, as compared to those who eat the animals who ate
the plants.
>
> Third (and last): I feel that a very important issue that is often ignored
> is the respect and reverence (or lack of) that accompany any meal. Whether
> a strict vegetarian or an omnivore, we should all remember the life that is
> given for us to live from day to day, and give the appropriate thanks to
> that organism (or creator of the organism, if you prefer).
I agree with you completely!! Such things are taken for granted and the
forfeiting of other creatures is rarely taken into consideration.
--
- Charlotte Sullivan
Executive Director
Protect Animal Life
"PEACE AND FREEDOM FOR ALL WHO LIVE"
