In regards to eating meat

[unity100]

Burning a leaf is obviously an act of violence to the plant.

The real question is: Would a plant register the same sort of distress when lovingly tended by a gardener, then harvested and eaten by that gardener?

same goes for an animal.

Just doing the test by having a human eat a plant won't suffice, because the intention would still be to just study the plant. The only true test would be if the person conducting the test truly were eating the plant for sustenance. I doubt if such a test has been done, and I question whether it even could be done.

you are saying that if someone ate the plant for its own self interest, it would make plant less stressed. and if for knowledge, service, science, more stressed.

with that approach, one could justify a lot of things that are in self-interest of the entity, if done 'lovingly'.