Treat all living things equally; don’t play favorites
Kian Hagerman
I understand some of the reasons why someone might entertain becoming a vegan, but the philosophy itself is deeply flawed.
Though vegans would have you think that they care about all living things, they hold little regard for the plant matter they consume to survive.
What is it about one life form, that makes it superior to another?
Proximity in likeness to ourselves it would seem, as animals are placed on a pedestal while plants are killed en masse to satisfy vegan appetites.
Some forms of plant life allow for sustained use like the banana tree, which can survive and continue to live after being picked of its fruit.
I’ve yet to hear of vegans restricting their diet to only eating the products of such plants, however.
In fact, the mass cultivation of one of the major staples of a vegan diet, the soybean, has been directly responsible for large scale deforestation around the world; places like Brazil, where it’s continued use is likely to see increasing deforestation.
Plants are alien in both form and function to humans, living sessile lives while producing the very air we breathe as a waste product.
But we also share commonalities with plants; plants have methods for sensing the world around them, and many studies have shown that plants can feel and respond to being eaten.
Many plants also breed, and produce seeds (their children); fruiting plants like banana trees release their seeds packaged in such a way as to be appetizing to animals, who will provide the nutrients the seed needs via digestion to propagate it.
Plants have evolved on the same planet as animals, and I would argue are much more vital to us than our fellow fauna.
If a cow is killed for food, many are fed on its meat; if a plant is killed for food, there is that much less oxygen being produced.
To those that would argue that the amount of plant matter to feed a cow is far greater than what a human would require, then why must we venerate them?
We do indeed share more in common with animals, but the good goes with the bad.
Animals prey on other animals, and there is nothing that makes us so vastly superior that we are above doing the same.
Whether we prey on creatures like unto ourselves or poor, defenseless plants that can’t even move to get away (for the most part anyway) we do what we must to survive.
If all plants had the big beautiful doe eyes of a baby deer, would that necessitate avoidance of their consumption and use in industry?
We as humans should approach such matters practically, wielding logic rather than emotional response to define our actions.
There are negative outcomes related to the cost of production of practically anything we consume, and animals should not be held in greater esteem than any other form of life simply because we relate to them better.
