i love tree news
This right here is why Iâm not vegan. If animals being somewhat similar to humans means we shouldnât eat them Iâm completely confused at why we can eat plants. The line is very strange.
(It seems to be some sort of assertion that plants donât feel pain, but honestly plants are so goddamn mysterious and baffling I have no idea why we assume we know this for sure.)
Given how much anti-things-eating-them signaling and weaponry various plants bring to bear, itâs reasonably clear they feel some type of aversive reaction.
Trees know when theyâre being hurt, and they even warn each other of danger (like those bastard predators, the giraffes).
Itâs very humanocentric of us to assume that their pain doesnât hurt, just because we donât notice it.
Even if plants did feel pain in the same way as humans (they donât) raising animals to kill and eat ourselves uses far more plants (and water) than just directly eating plants ourselves. Cows are large herbivores, they need large amounts of plants to eat.
If you lot are genuinely concerned about this then a plant based diet is still the best thing to avoid unnecessary cruelty to plants because animal products are extremely inefficient to produce, it takes far more calories to raise an animal to slaughter weight then are gained by eating the flesh of the animal.
So even if you live off nothing but beef and cheese youâre still causing plant death because those cows eat massive amounts of them.
âIâm not vegan because I care about plants rights therefore I eat the animals that eat more plants (and cause more deforestation) than I ever would if I just ate the plants directly, checkmate vegans!â
Right yes, you reviewed the scientific literature on plant biology and decided on that basis youâd continue eating animals⊠Not because itâs convenient, not habit, not because you enjoy it, not because it tastes good, not because you were raised that way⊠Because of the âfeelingsâ of plants, which you also eat, and the animals you eat also eat. This line is much less strange.
Interesting that yâall assumed that this thought experiment was some anti-vegan argument. You made a lot of leaps in order to make a straw-man out of the position.
The possibility that plants feel pain, and are averse to being killed, does not invalidate or even challenge veganism necessarily. But it does open up a new perspective making veganism, possibly, a little more arbitrary. Itâs kinda like the whole âthereâs no ethical consumption under capitalismâ thing. Of course that doesnât mean to say âfuck itâ and not care. But to me, it means that if I want to reduce the harm that I cause, Iâm looking at all categories of consumption, equally.
This is what made me stop being vegan years ago. Thereâs nothing wrong with being vegan, if thatâs what you want to experience. But understanding that thereâs no ethical consumption means finding balance and being conscientious in all categories, which makes being strict about just one of those categories seem arbitrary and possibly hypocritical.
For example: a vegan who makes tons of unethical purchases, who buys water bottles everyday(contributing to plastic in the ocean), uses products acquired by deforestation and destruction of habitats(like palm oil), and orders off Amazon like mad(causing more waste in packaging and fuel emissions), is doing much more harm to the environment , as well as animals, than someone who is very conscientious about all of their consumption and tries to live as environmentally sustainable as possible, but happens to enjoy a steak every once in a whileâŠ
I didnât write this to shame anyone or challenge veganism, just illustrate how a new perspective can broaden your understanding and help you find the right balance (for you). Not everything is black and white.
