Q: Why eat plants? Don’t plants feel pain too?
A: Plants are life forms but not sentient life – in the sense that they are not complex enough (e.g. have no nervous system) to feel pain. For example, a chicken that is about to be slaughtered feels fear and suffers under the knife, but this does not occur to a carrot being uprooted and chopped. Even if the carrot feels pain, it is obvious that it it much less than that of a chicken.
Q: But what if plants really do feel pain?
A: If plants and animals both feel pain, which might feel more pain? Here are three possibilities, with conclusions based on them:
(1) If animals feel more pain, we should eat less animals. But if some plants are eaten for a single meal instead, will the amount of total ‘pain’ caused be equivalent to the pain caused by eating a single animal? No – because the single animal ate many plants in his lifetime, which means eating him is linked to even more ‘pain’. We should thus eat plants directly, to reduce harm to plants and animals.
(2) If plants feel more ‘pain’, we should eat less plants. But if less plants are eaten, more animals will be eaten instead. Since each animal ate many plants in his lifetime, this means eating him is linked to even more ‘pain’. We should thus eat plants directly, to reduce harm to plants and animals.
(3) If the ‘pain’ of a plant being killed is equal to the pain of an animal being killed, each animal still ate many plants in his lifetime, which means eating him is linked to even more ‘pain’. We should thus eat plants directly, to reduce harm to plants and animals.
Fruits are best eaten when they are ready to fall from the tree, i.e., ‘die’. So, why not eat more fruits? Mean while, no animals die willingly. The ‘plant feel pain’ smokescreen is just saying, ‘Since no one can be perfect in preventing, I am absolved from doing anything to prevent pain at all.’ It’s like saying, because if I donate money to help starving people, I won’t be able to help all starving people, so I don’t need to donate anything at all.
More Good Points from a Vegan Friend:
[A] Of course plants have life. So do bacteria and cells. Even if we eat or drink nothing at all, the body kills millions of germs every second. Absolute non-killing is non-possible and non-existent. The ethical issue is about the unnecessary pain/suffering infliction and the intention.
[B] Plants do not experience pain in ways animals do. They have neither nerve cells nor a nerve centre. Pain would not serve any purpose for plants because they aren’t able to remove themselves from the pain-inflicting elements, unlike animals [who are forced to be unable to move away by imprisoning them].
[C] Animals need to eat many portions of plants to produce one portion of meat. When we eat meat, we would be killing a corresponding multifold amount of plants. By eating plants we’d kill the least.
[D] Eat fruits… it would be the most ethical diet. The fruit is the part of the plant which it ‘wants; to give. When edible fruits ripen, they change their colours or scent which appeal to humans, to ‘invite’ us to take them. In taking the fruit, we help the plant sow its seeds. The nutrients in edible fruits are what we need. Mutualism. There is no taking of life of the plant… if that is the concern.
[E] Fruit-eating is aligned with the “nature of joyful abundance”… ie, the more fruit you eat, the more fruits you tend to have when we scatter the seeds of the fruits we like. Its structure of abundance is inherently there. Unfortunately, our social practices are not in line with that beauty when we incinerate our “trash”. In contrast, meat-eating is aligned with the “nature of abundance in suffering”. The more meats we eat, the more the suffering multiplies [for animals, human health and the planet].
Related Articles:
Other irrefutable good reasons to go vegetarian/vegan
http://viva.org.uk/goingveggie/index.php
The Plants-Feel-Pain Argument is Faulty
http://www.vegansoapbox.com/sorry-meat-eaters-the-plants-feel-pain-argument-is-faulty
The Other Side of the Coin
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100715091654.htm