Why do vegetarians/vegans differentiate between plants and animals?

originally posted by: Krakatoa
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?

what the hell are you yapping about? if a visit to an abbattoir won't clearly demonstate why animals' deaths are different to that of plants, then frankly i don't know what will. and please don't attempt to 'use my logic' as you're simply not in the same league, ok?

LMAO

Quite possibly the stupidest question Ive seen on this forum and that is really saying something

I appreciate you posted it for the giggles or to argue/debate for the sake of it so I want bang on about how ridiculous the question is.

S&F for making me LOL

a reply to: Skid Mark

Sure, there are always going to be exceptions. The majority of plants are pretty tame tough.

a reply to: Krakatoa

I do eat egg whites in a series of products called Quorn. So I cannot claim complete veganism if put under oath (or maybe I can in this thread's description). Yet if the seeds v. eggs reasoning is valid, it is that something alive can potentially grow from both. A seed, be it directly from a plant or contained in fruit (which are seed pods tasty enough for birds and animals to eat them, and transport some of them a distance away in their excrement) is quite definitely a potential life. So I won't go around and around about this. I choose to eat like I do because it's very healthy and, surprisingly, tasty enough that every meal is a feast. When I "went" vegetarian and 'vegan' I thought I was losing all the foods I loved - I used to eat six sloppy joes at a time and only met one hamburger in my life I didn't like - and....was I in for a surprise!

So I don't want to fret and argue here, I was just answering the OP's question.

a reply to: IkNOwSTuff

You're welcome!

a reply to: Krakatoa

What I mean is no matter what you choose to eat there is some form of cruelty involved. You can't win, as in you can't truly live a life without inflicting cruelty on something.

a reply to: RoScoLaz4
Why is killing a plant different than killing an animal? Both are living carbon-based organisms. Both start as a form of seed, grow, ingest nutrient, expel wastes, so why should killing them be any different?

Should a vegan watching someone mowing their lawn or a harvester combine in a field make them change their mind to suddenly become a carnivore?

Same principal, different life-form. Anything less is hypocritical.

originally posted by: Yeahkeepwatchingme
a reply to: Krakatoa

What I mean is no matter what you choose to eat there is some form of cruelty involved. You can't win, as in you can't truly live a life without inflicting cruelty on something.

I do understand...and commend you for your previous acknowledgement over your hypocrisy...we all are in some ways. My point was, what is there to "win" here? IMO, this is not a contest...it is merely a difference of opinion, which open the channels of communication. I know I am not here to win anything, only to express my opinions and enjoy the discussion.

Vegans won't eat honey because bees make it.

If that doesn't make you lose all respect for vegans, you live in fantasy land.

I became a vegetarian after going to an abbattoir ...

but Hey it is all about personal choice ...

a reply to: Aleister

Thanks for your reply. I remember reading something along this lines.

The tasty fruit being merely the mechanism by which the plant passes its seeds along.

So you avoid killing lifeforms in general?

I think this would be worthy a seperate designation.

a reply to: Eunuchorn

Some Buddhist monks brush the path before them ... so as not to kill any insects ...
By your reckoning we should lose respect for them for living in "fantasy land"

Personally I try to respect all people even if they differ from me

a reply to: artistpoet

Uh no, not stepping on bugs equates to not eating honey in what way?

Bees are the cleanest existing living organism. Honey is what bees do. It's nothing like milk from cows (to which im not even that informed on how natural it is)

(Cockroaches also very clean, sitting in the billions cleaning each other 24/7)

If a vegan tells you they don't eat honey, spit at their feet & call them an ignorant #

a reply to: moebius

Plants also take up water which is rife with little critters - so, with this in mind, are the plants actually carnivorous?

a reply to: Aleister

Okay this is a bit creepy. By theoretically, assume there was a way to obtain meat from animals without killing/hurting them. You wouldn't be objected to it?

a reply to: moebius

Sounds like some long term CIA torture conspiracy.

a reply to: Eunuchorn

Why spit at their feet and call them ignorant ... sounds rather like a child having a tantrum

My point is about respect ... and also toleration of other's choices

Why do you think Vegans choose to not eat honey ?

food replicators would solve this dilemma.

a reply to: InTheLight

Well, they generally won't have a gastrointestinal tract to digest those critters.

Except for the carnivorous plant types of course.

But that is again a point that shows how similiar plants are to animals.

a reply to: Eunuchorn

Nah, think of eggs without yolk. Genetic engineering and stuff...

Edit:
Or (the somewhat more creepy) autonomy, self amputation and regeneration of body parts.