what if you found out tomorrow that vegetables legitimatly felt pain obviously not going to happen, but just as a hypothetical what if....
Well ... If they legitimately felt pain, that would mean there is some sort of consciousness there, some sort of individual ego, that can feel pain. This would mean tomatoes would be sentient (self-aware) since they can feel their own pain. In which case, they'd have the same inalienable rights (the right to life, freedom, etc.) as all other sentient beings. I'd cease eating them unless I had to to survive (which I'd eat meat to survive too).
I personally believe that plants must have some sort of feelings. But, through eating no meat, I am reducing suffering. I can't avoid suffering, so I will reduce it, because I have to live on something too. I reduce suffering by not eating meat, because the serving of meat needs a lot more plant input, as if I would just the plants myself. I read once, that the loss of energy from one level of the food chain to another is around 80-90%. So if I eat a piece of cow, I acutally eat about 10 times as many plants, then if I would just eat the plants myself directly.
I would still eat them. People need them to survive. People do not need meat to survive. If I couldn't live with out them, then yeah, I'd eat them. Even if they felt pain, getting picked and eaten is nowhere near the pain that "meat" goes through. And, since tomatoes, avacadoes, peppers, etc are technically the "fruits" of the plant...I wouldn't have to kill the plant to eat them.
I get told that by all my stupid meat-eating "friends" and my dad all the time! "Well, didn't you know that vegetables feel pain too? You're murdering the poor vegetables, Nova!!!!" It really gets on my nerves. But yeah, I think I would still eat vegetables even if they felt pain. I mean, there's no real evidence that they do, and they don't look at you with their intelligent eyes before they're killed. ~Nova
I hear you! jees they think it's funny aswell and okay first time you hear it, it's a li'l bit funny..but it gets old. That's my rant ha. I don't hear it so much anymore 'cos I'm not killing anything. I only eat what falls off the trees in our back garden and my neighbours except for nuts. oh jees what if they feel haha. take it easyx
you eat your neighbours? seriously, Questie: I'd still have an herbavore diet because it takes far less veggies to feed me than a sheep that then is killed for consumption and we still have veggie side dishes. Limiting the resource and the destruction.
lol yes punishment for the "you know veggies feel don't ya?" question. joking but it is a good idea:H
How about since everything has a spirit to just thank them for helping you live? You know? Give thanks. Is that a problem for you guys?
I give thanks. I know thisll sound totally weird but i dont give a crap, what the hell...i thank vegetables. There, i said it. Well, i dont necessarily always thank the vegetable. But always when im preparing food i think about where it came from and how glad i am to be eating it...and to me thats a form of thanks. I DO believe these things have spirit inside them. They have a certain energy when you hold them...but to me this energy seems completely different to animal or human energy. In answer to the original question-if vegetables had feelings i would eat them but feel horribly guilty about it. I still wouldnt eat animals as i would still believe in the difference between animal spirit and other forms of energy. Also, my motivation behind bein veg has a LOT more to it than not wanting to cause the animals pain, even if this is a big concern. Xx
