Heh! ;-D Have you ever noticed that for people who debate, talking is like ping pong, only the game never ends? They just have to knock one more shot across the net...thereby remaining on top of the game.

No, I don't take this utter nonsense about the "brutality" of killing plants seriously...though I'm not saying that the plants lack awareness. I think they are quite aware of what happens to them (and science will back me up on that), they just don't have the muscles or voices to react in such a way as to show us that they are aware.

But....tell me that for you the experience of chopping off a living chicken's head or slitting a struggling pig's throat while he hangs from a conveyer belt is at the same level as pulling a potatoe or a beet out of the ground. It's not at the same level, and you know it.


And the point is this: It's not about brutality, it's about actual need. Biological organisms must consume some other living things in order to continue living themselves. I accept that. I have no problem with it. I have no problem with wolves killing their prey, birds catching mice and other birds, people catching fish or eating chicken, deer consuming plants, people harvesting grain...I have no problem with any of it.

However, what I was saying is that some people might prefer not to kill animals...specially if they had to do it themselves. And if so...they DO have viable alternatives...they CAN choose not to eat animals and instead eat plants, and can live a perfectly healthy life doing so, unless they're in a far northern environment without imported food.

The primary thing that prevents them from exercising such a choice is their own established habits and customs, acquired from their culture, their family, and their past experience. If they're used to eating meat, then they will probably keep doing so.

I've gone through periods when I was a vegetarian, but mostly have been an omnivore.

I place no judgement on individuals regardless of which of the above diets they prefer to follow. That's entirely their choice. I don't insist they should make the same choice I might nor think I'm "better" than them for making the choice I do. I do not condemn people for eating meat.

p.s. That silly Tom Paxton song is a feeble bit of whimsical humour/satire, but it's not as annoying as the Arrogant Worms' strident epic about the same basic thing. See if you can find that one on Youtube, and you'll hear what I mean.