Why is killing a plant to eat not cruel, whereas killing an animal is?


========================================================================

Answered By:  Scott Graham, Working, studying and generally accepting that I know almost nothing about th...

I'm not a vegan and I've a feeling that this is just a troll question, but allow me to answer anyway.

1. Plants don't have a nervous system that allows them to feel pain. Some plants can react to stimulation, such as emitting chemicals when getting eaten etc but there is no evidence of a system that would be comparable to that of an animals in allowing the plant to feel pain. This is the main ethical problem vegetarians and vegans have i.e. I feel pain, I don't like pain, I don't want to inflict that same feeling on others. This is the basic principle of empathy.

2. Many plants have evolved to entice animals to eat them (or more specifically parts of them).

Fruits are the perfect example of this. The plant is often propagated by animals eating it's fruit and disposing of the seeds elsewhere. Plants evolved to have fruit that tastes good and changes colour to indicate when they are ripe.

Not a fruit I know, but my favourite example of ripening as the berries become ripe at different times, showing the contrast.

=================================================================

Answered By:  Chiranjeevi Alti, Test Engineer

Originally Answered: Why is killing a plant for food considered OK, but not killing an animal for food?

Short version

The same reason killing of human beings by an intelligent alien race for whatever reason is not considered OK no matter how desperate the situation is.

Did you just say the lives of both human being and an animal are the same?
Not really, i think everyone should have a right to live. I believe in live and let live.

Long version

Questions like this always start a fight between vegetarians/vegans and non-vegetarians. I am just trying to answer a question and not pointing any fingers. So here goes some points that always get me thinking and clarifications for any queries i might get in the comments section

• You don't really kill a plant for food, you just consume the fruit/root/flower/seed/leaf etc which can always grow back. The same is not true for an animal, it will bleed to its death!

• Consumption of a fruit is essential in order to get the seed out so it can sprout and continue the life cycle. That's how nature is!
• We don't have to kill animals for food (except in extreme cold weather where no plants survive) when there are enough plant products to feed the whole planet.

That's not true! If we don't eat animals, they would outpopulate us and eat all the plants/plant products

• A cow typically yields 8-12 calves in its normal average lifetime of 15-20 years. Cows in dairy farms are raped (artificial insemination) so they can give milk all their life (less than 5 years) while yielding about 5 calves. They are fed grain (farmed by cutting down rain forests endangering several species) and injected with hormones to accelerate growth thereby increasing weight to make a profit on beef. Cow population would have been smaller and their grain and water consumption minimal if they were never dairy farmed!

I don't believe you!
Dairy business is a multibillion dollar industry. Get your facts from Google.

• 16 pounds of grain roughly converts to 1 pound of meat. All that grain could be used much more efficiently if it were fed directly to people. Farmed animals use more than half the water consumed in the US. This will be a serious problem in the future and the UN recently urged a global move to a meat and dairy-free diet.
• Animals are sentient beings (beings capable of feelings) that raise younger ones and share familial bonds very similar to humans. We don't possess any dominion over them.

=================================================================

Answered By:  Mehul Parikh

Has anyone considered that plants and trees produce "fruits" to be intentionally consumed by animals so their seeds can be excreted (or pollen can be transported) and give "birth" to another tree or plant to bear more "fruits"? This event is a necessity for the ecosystem to continue.  Does an animal produce more babies for the intentional consumption by another animal?  Some animals do produce multiple offspring (like fish, reptiles, and insects) to assure the survival of their species when predators can get to the young, but, this again is the natural scheme to balance the natural ecosystem. ... Only the modern human intentionally (and artificially) breeds various animals in abundance for their milk, for their meat, and for their skin/bones/oils.  They do the same for plants and trees.

Ancient civilizations, the current aborigines of any land, and many animals had (and still have) the proper philosophy: respect all things in this world... take/use what you need to survive - not whatever you can get your hands on...

I am a vegetarian. I respect my omnivore friends, but in general, I don't believe in the "greed" and "gluttony" mentality which results in cruelty or extinction to any animal and an imbalance to the natural ways of things.  All this modern man-made "conditions" will be detrimental to the entire earth - ultimately all humans will suffer.

=================================================================

Answered By:  Marcus Geduld, Shakespearean director, computer programmer, teacher, writer, likes dinosaurs.

Marcus has 300+ answers in Human Behavior.

I'm a utilitarian. Which means, roughly, my ethical system seeks to minimize the amount of unhappiness and suffering in the world and maximize the amount of happiness. 

I also believe that, while fallible, the most reliable guide we have to Nature is Science. 

Science suggests some animals can feel pain and suffer. It also suggests plants can't. 

Which is why I find it more ethical to kill and eat plants than animals.