03-13-2017, 01:19 PM
First of all, congratulations and a big thank you from the animals farmed for food.
I understand the dilemma. For many years I have asked not to be given or bought flowers, because I don't like killing that part of a plant just for decoration and watching them slowly die. I don't even like stepping on grasses.
I have that feeling sometimes too while eating plant life. But I must eat or perish. Sometimes I think of Van Gogh, who suffered greatly because of all the suffering he saw. He would only eat potatoes at one point because he knew a family too poor to afford anything beyond the potatoes they grew.
The way I think of it is that I make choices that do the least harm. Plants have evolved to need animals to eat parts of them to propagate, and they don't die just because the fruits, seeds, flowers (like broccoli) and leaves are harvested. Plants don't have the same systems as we and animals do, especially a nervous system. Though plants have a survival instinct like all other life here, that survival is not the same as animal life. There are many factors that suggest plants are more geared to being eaten as sustenance, whereas we absolutely know animals do not want to be slaughtered (nevermind the torture they may endure in factory farms especially). You could mow down a field of weeds, wildflowers, wild plants, grasses, and the root systems would survive and continue to produce. Compare this to cutting of a leg of a cow. There are so many pointers that lead one to see plants as the natural (and kinder) food of this existence—since food there must be. Of course commercial farming is not ideal and does not usually align with any sort of compassion.
Gentle treatment, appreciation, and as 1109 said "Love the food, love the Earth, love your body" is helpful in generating good feelings about having to eat.
I understand the dilemma. For many years I have asked not to be given or bought flowers, because I don't like killing that part of a plant just for decoration and watching them slowly die. I don't even like stepping on grasses.
I have that feeling sometimes too while eating plant life. But I must eat or perish. Sometimes I think of Van Gogh, who suffered greatly because of all the suffering he saw. He would only eat potatoes at one point because he knew a family too poor to afford anything beyond the potatoes they grew.
The way I think of it is that I make choices that do the least harm. Plants have evolved to need animals to eat parts of them to propagate, and they don't die just because the fruits, seeds, flowers (like broccoli) and leaves are harvested. Plants don't have the same systems as we and animals do, especially a nervous system. Though plants have a survival instinct like all other life here, that survival is not the same as animal life. There are many factors that suggest plants are more geared to being eaten as sustenance, whereas we absolutely know animals do not want to be slaughtered (nevermind the torture they may endure in factory farms especially). You could mow down a field of weeds, wildflowers, wild plants, grasses, and the root systems would survive and continue to produce. Compare this to cutting of a leg of a cow. There are so many pointers that lead one to see plants as the natural (and kinder) food of this existence—since food there must be. Of course commercial farming is not ideal and does not usually align with any sort of compassion.
Gentle treatment, appreciation, and as 1109 said "Love the food, love the Earth, love your body" is helpful in generating good feelings about having to eat.
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