From staunch supporters of meat-eating one can sometimes hear condescending: “After all, even eating only plant foods, you still commit murder. What is the difference between, say, taking the life of a pig and a flowering plant?” I answer: “The most significant one!” Does a potato cry plaintively when it is pulled out of the ground, like a calf taken from its mother? Does a celery leaf squeal in pain and horror when it is plucked, like a pig being led to the slaughterhouse and having its throat slit open with a knife? What bitterness of loss, pain of loneliness or pangs of fear can a bunch of lettuce experience?
We don’t need a fancy polygraph to demonstrate that plants have some form of consciousness. But there is also no doubt that this consciousness is present in plants in a rudimentary, rudimentary form, much more primitive than in mammals, with their highly developed nervous system. Complex tests are not required in order to understand that the same cows, pigs, sheep can experience pain no less than people. Who has not seen how they tremble and writhe, writhe, moan and cry when they are tortured or maimed, how they do everything possible to avoid pain at all costs!
And for that matter, many fruits and vegetables can generally be harvested without causing death or any harm to the plant. This includes berries, melons, legumes, nuts, seeds, pumpkins, squash, and many other types of vegetables. Potatoes are dug out of the ground when the plant itself has already died. Most vegetable crops are generally annuals, and harvesting coincides with or only slightly prevents their natural death.
There is also scientific evidence that our teeth, jaws, and long, twisted intestines NOT fit for eating meat. So, for example, the human digestive tract is 10-12 times the length of its body, while in carnivores such as a wolf, lion or cat, this figure is three, which allows their digestive system to get rid of such rapidly decomposing organic products in the shortest possible time. like meat, avoiding the formation of rotting toxins. In addition, the stomach of carnivores has, in comparison with the human, an increased concentration of hydrochloric acid, which allows them to easily digest heavy meat food. Today, many scientists agree that fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and cereals are the most optimal food for the human body.
So we are well aware that without food, we cannot last long, and all our food consists of matter that was once alive in one way or another. But since we can do without the flesh of slaughtered animals and still remain healthy and full of strength, why then, having an abundance of vegetable food necessary for our well-being, continue to take the life of innocent creatures?
Sometimes in some circles of people who are not alien to “spirituality” there is a strange opinion: “Of course we eat meat,” they say, “so what? What matters is not what we fill our stomach with, but what fills our mind.” Although it is true that the purification of one’s mind from delusions and the liberation from the selfish captivity of one’s own “I” are very noble goals, but how can we hope to achieve love and understanding with all living beings by continuing to eat them?