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Eating and using animals when there is a plant-based alternative is wrong and should not be done.
Ok so genuine question (and also my odd moral I guess?) why is eating a plant more moral than eating an animal? They're both equally alive and subsequently equally dead. Sure plants don't have a nervous system but they do react to harmful stimuli in a way somewhat analagous to a pain response. The only real difference appears to be that we can relate to animals more.
Eat plants: plants die
Eat animals: animals have to eat a bunch of plants first meaning way more plants die and also animals die
Would you say that cutting a carrot is equal to cut the throat of a cow?
Plants do not have a central nervous system or a brain so they are not able to feel pain or emotions. Animals can feel, dream, have friends, same as we do. Just not as complex.
If that's the litmus test, then there are certainly animals that aren't sentient and don't meet those requirements. Is it OK to eat animals that do not have brains?
Actually, (correct me if i'm wrong) carrots are not dead until you boil/cook them.
^I^ ^love^ ^poking^ ^holes^ ^in^ ^people's^ ^analogies^ ^without^ ^addressing^ ^their^ ^points.^
You are also denying oxygen to those cows
you can't prove that
Here is my prove: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8052213/
TL;DR: Abstract
Claims that plants have conscious experiences have increased in recent years and have received wide coverage, from the popular media to scientific journals. Such claims are misleading and have the potential to misdirect funding and governmental policy decisions. After defining basic, primary consciousness, we provide new arguments against 12 core claims made by the proponents of plant consciousness. Three important new conclusions of our study are (1) plants have not been shown to perform the proactive, anticipatory behaviors associated with consciousness, but only to sense and follow stimulus trails reactively; (2) electrophysiological signaling in plants serves immediate physiological functions rather than integrative-information processing as in nervous systems of animals, giving no indication of plant consciousness; (3) the controversial claim of classical Pavlovian learning in plants, even if correct, is irrelevant because this type of learning does not require consciousness. Finally, we present our own hypothesis, based on two logical assumptions, concerning which organisms possess consciousness. Our first assumption is that affective (emotional) consciousness is marked by an advanced capacity for operant learning about rewards and punishments. Our second assumption is that image-based conscious experience is marked by demonstrably mapped representations of the external environment within the body. Certain animals fit both of these criteria, but plants fit neither. We conclude that claims for plant consciousness are highly speculative and lack sound scientific support.
that's not proof they aren't conscious
"...plants have not been shown to perform the proactive, anticipatory behaviors associated with consciousness..."
an absence of evidence is not evidence of absence
Plants don't have an agent that feels negative or positive feelings. Its stimulus-response system starts and stops at that. Animals on the other hand can experience suffering and pleasure, and and it's morally wrong to inflict the first and deny the second
this is only true under a limited set of moral beliefs. most people aren't utilitarians though
you can't prove that
I also can't prove that you have one. It's not a standard we operate under.
so it's probably not a good basis for making moral decisions
It is. You're already doing it, otherwise you will be having zero problems with killing and eating random humans. You just put your line at believing that humans have agency, even though you just as much can't prove that.
We have pretty good understanding of how biological organisms operate at this point. We don't need to spend generations on disproving solipsism anymore.
you're projecting.
I don't think it means what you think it means.
you're projecting your values and ethical system onto me.
No, I just assume you aren't eating humans. Because it's the only way we can continue this conversation.
you also assumed my reasons
no, that's not the basis of my moral decisions
I think this is the one thing that is impossible to defend. In my opinion, not being vegan is impossible to justify, on ethical and moral grounds. And I am not vegan currently (I was in the past).
Plant-basee alternatives are such a joke to me.Plant based meats and alternative milks are built upon an infrastructure that demands massive resource extraction from third world countries, buttressed by an impoverished underclass that suffers generational trauma to feed the transactional corporate machine. Just don't eat meat; veggies, fruit, and legumes are all you need.
Why?
Why not?
I'm genuinely asking. People approach this topic from different sides, and I want to understand.
Because I think it is wrong to kill an individual if it is not necessary. Calorie intake is not a legitimate reason if it can also be plant-based.
most people don't believe that. I think it's fair to ask for some justification
We've been doing this for ages, actually we evolved eating meat.
We slaved colored people for ages. Woman had much less rights back in the days. We lived in caves for decades. Etc.
Just because we have been doing something for a very long time and it is socially accepted does not automatically make it right.
They are correct though, don't vegans have to take suppliments to fill in on things missing from their diet? Maybe eating less meat can be a goal for humanity, but I think we still need some until lab/fake meat is yummy enough.
Edit: now i think of it, suppliments are available so maybe my comment doesnt matter.
If modern medicine and things like vaccines are ok, then so are supplements.
Supplements are lower impact and less "unnatural" than animal agriculture.
I think that a reduced meat diet is good for the environment but being vegan is very far in my opinion.
If you are thinking about B-12, that is already artificially added to meat products too. So even people who eat meat aren't getting it the "natural" way. Now there are available plant milks fortified with it which does the same thing.
Yes, vegans should monitor their health more closely to make sure nothing is missing, but it wouldn't be particularly difficult to get everything you need from plant based sources.
And actual milk fortified with it.
comparing women to animals is what misogynists do. comparing colored people to animals is what slavers do.
I'm not a vegan, but that's not what they're saying at all.
They are comparing slavery and misogeny to the killing of animals, not the animals themselves.
Additionally, why do people complaining about these comparisons always view it as lowering the standards for certain groups of people rather than raising the standards for animals? It's the wrong takeaway from the comparison.