Why do vegetarians/vegans differentiate between plants and animals?

After all, both are lifeforms, aren't they.

On a cellular level they aren't even that different. Both belong to the group of eukaryotes.

Being somewhat flexible one could actually see plants as non-locomotive animals.

Is vegetarianism/veganism just a concealed form of speciesism?

What do you think?

PS:
And while we are at speciesism. Given that plants are capable of photosynthesis, don't have to constantly look for food and kill other plants and animals to survive. Aren't they the superior lifeform?

Plants kill each other. I've seen vines choke out trees. Also, some plants eat meat in the form of bugs. You make some great points; though.

I think generally because they relate more to animals than to plants. Somebody in the biological sciences should comment. For example, I'm sure that plant cells have different cell walls than animal cells. There're clear distinctions between the two which someone might be prejudiced to. However, plants have DNA just like animals. I'm also sure they have nervous systems, although I'm not sure if they have central nervous systems.

Plants are alive. Plants feel pain. Plants communicate. They move, grow and reproduce. Yet even if you limited yourself to bacterial or fungal life, out of concern for these things, you'd still be eating something alive.

Plants don't have a verbal language, so they're free game.

I'm pretty sure I just won this debate.

a reply to: Eunuchorn

Nope. You didn't mention bacon so the debate is still open.

Sorry.

Bacon wrapped Asparagus. Mmmmm

originally posted by: moebius
After all, both are lifeforms, aren't they.

On a cellular level they aren't even that different. Both belong to the group of eukaryotes.

Being somewhat flexible one could actually see plants as non-locomotive animals.

Is vegetarianism/veganism just a concealed form of speciesism?

What do you think?

PS:
And while we are at speciesism. Given that plants are capable of photosynthesis, don't have to constantly look for food and kill other plants and animals to survive. Aren't they the superior lifeform?

Because it would then expose how stupid it is for omnivores like humans to be vegetarian.

a reply to: moebius

Yes they are just as alive. I've lived a lot with them very close all day and night long and have seen what they do and how they change. They even move around (not by the roots of course). They are spookily alive and I sense a kind of awareness in them.

I think vegetarianism is a compassion for the species closer to us that we can relate to most.

We have to eat something. May be fruitarians are the ones who take other life least. Yet even they are eating lots of potential babies.

Nature is all about life feeding on life. Creatures need to consume other creatures to survive. Even the stars are doing this. The act of killing for food in nature is nothing violent. The lion does not hate the antelope. The antelope is the lion's best friend. Without the antelope the lion can not live.

Native Americans seemed to have believed that everything is alive on one conscious plain or another. The older I get the more I see that this is in a sense is very true.

In my personal experience with vegans (and this is my limited experiences) it is because they have eyes that can look at you...and touch your heart. The thought of having them die so that they might live is simply abhorrent to them. I've often asked if you knew the plant sensed your presence and you simply didn't understand their form of communication, then would you still eat it out of ignorance?

Most of the time I get a response of the form, "well they don't do they...they are just plants (or fruit/roots of plants). When confronted with the topic of fruit, they state it is not an entire plant.

To which I respond, "Yet, it is the plants embryo....hmmm...eating an embryo sounds a lot like eating an egg is it not?"

Mostly, this dumbfounds them speechless....looking like a deer in the headlights at night.

As a vegan I don't eat plants. I eat seeds and fruits. Rice, oatmeal, corn, beans, potatoes, nuts, etc., are seeds. They are not the whole plant. I try not to eat carrots for that reason, carrots are the whole plant.

And no, seeds are not eggs. An egg has to be cared for and warmed to hatch. Seeds are seeds.

originally posted by: Aleister
As a vegan I don't eat plants. I eat seeds and fruits. Rice, oatmeal, corn, beans, potatoes, nuts, etc., are seeds. They are not the whole plant. I try not to eat carrots for that reason, carrots are the whole plant.

SO, you are all for eating aborted plant fetuses then?

a reply to: Aleister

Seeds?

WHY DONT YOU JUST GO DOWN TO YOUR LOCAL PLANNED PARENTHOOD & GET SOME FETUS FOR DINNER.


Seriously Krakatoa? Posted a mere few seconds before me. I made this joke now in two threads so far this morning, PLZ stop stealing my thunder kthxbai

originally posted by: Aleister
As a vegan I don't eat plants. I eat seeds and fruits. Rice, oatmeal, corn, beans, potatoes, nuts, etc., are seeds. They are not the whole plant. I try not to eat carrots for that reason, carrots are the whole plant.

And no, seeds are not eggs. An egg has to be cared for and warmed to hatch. Seeds are seeds.

Yes but isn't the whole plant sometimes killed to get the seeds? In a magical other world it might not be, but in this one economy counts. Granted, your point still stands. Yet what's different between a plant seed and a chicken egg?

a reply to: Krakatoa

I added to my comment before seeing your response. What came first, the chicken or the rice? Why did the oatmeal cross the road? Nonsense questions. Kind of like that.

I'm a vegetarian and I admit I'm an absolute hypocrite over it. Plants are alive too, they have consciousness, interconnecting abilities and they're wonderful indicators of how the land is doing.

They're alive, they produce, they function for the betterment of the planet and the lifeforms on it, but I totally admit, vegetarianism is not cruelty free. Then in 50 years when most meat is grown in labs (and real meat's super expensive) people will debate that in-vitro meat is unethical since it's "living cellular material".

You can't win, even when we live off of only energy way in the future people will complain we're destroying photons or atoms to sustain our own lives....

originally posted by: Aleister
a reply to: Krakatoa

I added to my comment before seeing your response. What came first, the chicken or the rice? Why did the oatmeal cross the road? Nonsense questions. Kind of like that.

If a vegan is going to question my morality or decision to eat meat, then I can equally question their eating of plant, seed, and/or fruit too. IMO, that is not (in your word, nonsense).

ETA: Oh, and BTW, aren't potatoes the entire plant like carrots? It is eating the root of the plant, the root is what extracts nutrients and feedsthe plant. If you remove that the plant starves....and dies, does it not?

I feel like humans can empathize with fellow animals, but it is really difficult to feel empathy for plants when we don't really understand or can't relate to how they feel.
2nd

a reply to: moebius

originally posted by: Aleister
...And no, seeds are not eggs. An egg has to be cared for and warmed to hatch. Seeds are seeds.

So, seed require no care at all to germinate then? They don't require water, light, soil nutrients? That sure sounds like care to me. Put a seed in a sealed box and will it not simply die and begin to decompose? I see no difference to an egg in your definition.

a reply to: Yeahkeepwatchingme
What is there to "win" here? That is what I do not understand. If you decide to eat vegan, go for it...I have no qualms about your decision. It is when a vegan decides to impose their decision upon others, sometimes quite vociferously, is when it becomes a problem.

a visit to an abbattoir will clear it up

a reply to: RoScoLaz4

For whom? You? How arrogant to say that an experience like that will change everyone's mind everywhere. I guess using your logic, that all workers there are vegans too then? Wait, how could they be and participate in that action? I guess all those placed are run by purely robotic means, entirely, with no humans involved in any way, shape, or form?