But aren't we Killing Plants?

This is a question that is often thrown at vegetarians and vegans, by non-vegetarians, as their first missile when the discussion on food turns to an argument. Almost always, it starts off with a smirk of confidence that they’ve got us on the wrong foot, supposedly with a question that just can’t be answered!

It’s not a rare question, in fact; people like me end up answering these kinds of questions at least 3 times a day. I have had new vegans and youngsters who are pushed to a corner reach out to me for a lifeline when this is posed to them.

It’s funny why meat eaters think this particular question is so intellectual or unassailable - and I do have a reason for that thought. It is ignorance, and a belief based on false assumptions, very much the same reasons they base many of their other notions of food, animals, nutrition and health on. It is the ignorance that assumes the posture of arrogance with many who fire this question. And here are some important reasons why it’s absolutely okay to eat plants, or as meat eaters would have us believe, kill them!

Animal Life and Plant Life are Different! 

The first fundamental point to remember is that there is a big difference between animal life and plant life. Just because we consider both of them to have life, doesn’t mean their purpose, reason and relationship to life are the same. All animal life revolves around the fact that they are all capable of mobility and when confronted or suspected of a possibility of any threat to their life, able to defend themselves by moving away from the point of danger. Which is also the reason that ends any debate on whether mushrooms are vegan or not. All animal forms can retract, defend, escape or attack when in threat of an attack, and it is this one reason why killing animals is a terrible act, for they are, for the purpose of killing, overpowered, trapped, incapacitated and eventually slaughtered. So in reality, animals are made to buckle down like plants and not the other way around. Plants were not designed to escape or retract - they were given the power to rebuild and grow, their flowers, fruits, seeds and roots are designed to build all over again. Which is why, when you take a fruit off a plant, you call it plucking, not severing or beheading - a new fruit or flower will spring again and the plant delivers continuity of life.

Eating Plants breed More Life

Trees and plants are life donors, they are necessary for life to exist, they are a constant. No matter which species of animals go extinct and which new species evolve, their dependence on plant matter is unequivocal - from dinosaurs to today’s animals in factory farms, they all need plant and plant matter to exist and flourish. Without plants, there is no oxygen - nothing else on earth can produce oxygen, and no animal survives without plant for food, not even a tiger - in the cycle of life, the deer a tiger feeds on has to depend and flourish on the strength of the flora around, which is what we call biodiversity. And the so called food chain which is often used out of context in these arguments is impacted only when a dependant link is compromised. And by using lesser plants and 'manufacturing' more animals, we have upset that biodiversity - which we now growing more of fewer crops that are fed to more of fewer species of animals, disturbing the equilibrium. When you eat plants, you bring in variety, and the variety brings to life rich fauna that then enriches the flora. So, when you eat plants, you don’t kill life, you do quite the opposite - you enable new life, more prosperous!

Understanding the Central Nervous System

Do this test. Take a pin and poke yourself hard on your finger. What happens? You feel pain, your face twitches, your finger recoils and an impulse shoots to your brain. Why? Because your body has nerves that are capable of relaying the electrical impulse along a conducting cable to a processing point which then sends back impulse to the muscle controlling the point of impact. Right? Now pick the same pin and prick your nail. What happens? Take a pair of scissors and snap off a bit of hair. What happens? Twitches? Pain? Body recoiled? No? Why? Because these points in the body do not have nerve endings that relay impulses. Yet, these are body parts that grow, that change complexion and form, change with exposure, use and age, they are alive. Why do people who believe these parts on their own body can have life and grow and yet not feel pain don't accept the same logic when applied to plants? Then they insist, if plants can grow they can feel pain. Really?

What is the real meaning of killing?

Killing is an act that causes life to stop, and makes the destruction complete, permanent and irreversible. When you kill a chicken, that’s the end of that bird’s life. The bird can never walk again, never breed again and there can be no trace of the life. This is also why we are seeing the extinction of millions of species. We have killed them, destroyed them all permanently. Try this experiment. Pull out an ordinary plant we consume every day, like coriander. You can eat the leaves, crush the stems but will have to throw away the root. And wherever you throw it, a plant will emerge, life will spring and continuity is guaranteed. That is not called killing. Try this with the legs of the chicken you killed, and wait to see if they lay eggs. When you eat plants, you can never destroy them permanently. You eat a fruit, the seed will germinate. You discard a stem, life will emerge, you discard a flower, they will pollinate.

Circle of Life and Sustainability

While not directly related to pain and cruelty, a point of argument with eating plants is that the earth can’t handle the demand if all of us ate plants! This is highly illogical. Firstly, when all of us eat, we all won’t eat the same set of plant produce. With the variety of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, roots and leaves available, we are bound to make our choices. Second when you eat plants, you eat produce grown and conducive to local conditions. Third, thankfully, we are designed to eat mangoes but not their seeds. We discard them and from them grow another mango tree, and from every tree come a thousand mangoes, not one! So the number of mouths a single tree can satiate is beyond exhaustion. And, finally, as herbivores we all dig in for different parts of the same tree. Different species go for different parts, making the tree that much more productive, endearing and enduring - this beautiful balance of life is what makes biodiversity, critical to life, and man is ruthlessly destroying it.

Stop killing plants is an old ploy. Supposedly an intelligent point made at vegans, but is actually one that’s fully flawed and fails all possible arguments and justifications. In any case, if you are one of those who have asked this question, shouldn’t someone worried about killing plants also be worried about killing animals? If you can stop killing animals, I can give you an alternate path that can keep you nourished and healthy. Do you have one for me, if I stopped killing plants?

Written by Anand Siva.

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