The Vegan Matrix: A Guide to Veganism

[WilbyInebriated]

@Wilby: if you eat an apple you don't kill the tree. If you eat a steak, you do kill the animal. See the difference?

don't be asinine... if you harvest a carrot does it not kill the plant? and when you harvest corn do you not kill the plant? and potatoes? and wheat, and oats,  etc. etc. ad infinitum, ad nauseam.

what i "see"... is you cherrypicking...

[MasterPlaster]

@ghost,

The real justification of many for killing animals for food is "might is right".
We live by the same values we bring in to the world so "he who lives by the sword dies by the sword"
The law of karma will have to be fulfilled by all.
The brutality we see in the world is a reflection of what we are propagating.
Just don't get involved with people who believe eating an apple is the same as killing it.

[Ghost]

Question
Do plants have a nervous system?
I'm vegan and when people ask me why i think its not wrong to "kill" a plant, i always say because they don't feel, they don't cry, they don't have a brain ect... and they always say something like "well how do you know they don't feel pain, how do you know they don't cry"...

i would assume it comes down to the fact that plants don't have a nerv system...?

Additional Details
i'm ok with killing microscopic animals with every breath i take because its natural. unlike torturing a cow for food.

Answer
plants do not have a nervous system. they have a system of hormones, methylxanthines, alkaloids ect. that allow them to respond to the changing environment, including when they are damaged they release a large amount of proline. the difference between eating plants and animals is that we must eat plants to survive and we do not need animals or their products to survive. i think it is very obvious that animals are more sentient than a plant. you can torture a cow, a plant however has no cognition of this. and dont feel guilty for killing microbes because well...they arent animals. they are prokaryotes. animals are in their own kingdom, vastly more evolved and derived than prokaryotic bacteria. so no you arent being a hypocrite, the people who say that just need to brush up on their taxonomy before throwing stones.

Reference: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080304164624AApYZF5 <---more answers found here.

[WilbyInebriated]

Question
Do plants have a nervous system?
I'm vegan and when people ask me why i think its not wrong to "kill" a plant, i always say because they don't feel, they don't cry, they don't have a brain ect... and they always say something like "well how do you know they don't feel pain, how do you know they don't cry"...

i would assume it comes down to the fact that plants don't have a nerv system...?

Additional Details
i'm ok with killing microscopic animals with every breath i take because its natural. unlike torturing a cow for food.

Answer
plants do not have a nervous system. they have a system of hormones, methylxanthines, alkaloids ect. that allow them to respond to the changing environment, including when they are damaged they release a large amount of proline. the difference between eating plants and animals is that we must eat plants to survive and we do not need animals or their products to survive. i think it is very obvious that animals are more sentient than a plant. you can torture a cow, a plant however has no cognition of this. and dont feel guilty for killing microbes because well...they arent animals. they are prokaryotes. animals are in their own kingdom, vastly more evolved and derived than prokaryotic bacteria. so no you arent being a hypocrite, the people who say that just need to brush up on their taxonomy before throwing stones.

Reference: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080304164624AApYZF5 <---more answers found here.

i see... so you only have issues with taking the life of fuzzy furry things with 'eyes' and 'ears'... but any other life form is insignificant...

your hypocrisy nourishes me... 

and yahoo 'answers' like that one... are nothing more than opinions. tu stultus es!


"Cleve Baxter described a number of experiments that he conducted with plants, testing their response to various stimuli. In many cases, the plants were attached to a polygraph (lie-detector), which measured the electrical impulses of their leaves. While the plants did respond with high levels of stress to certain events, they tended to react most strongly to wanton destruction such as an experimenter smashing or setting fire to an entire plant. Little response was recorded in relation to less dramatic acts like pulling off a few leaves. This research suggests that plants may feel something like pain, fear, or at least discomfort in certain cases. "

there... you've been refuted with ACTUAL experiments. go and falsify them if you want any consideration for your asinine opinion that only fuzzy furry life should be respected...

[Ghost]

now you're just putting words in my mouth. i never said other life forms are insignificant...
besides, "the difference between eating plants and animals is that we must eat plants to survive and we do not need animals or their products to survive."
also, nobody here is forcing you to become a vegan. this is for educational purposes to inform people. if you dont like it then dont partake and go on about your life, if you like eating meat then that's on you.