Last week, an academic at Drexel University made headlines
after publishing an essay
arguing that it’s impossible to really be vegetarian.
Why? Plants eat decayed matter, which includes animal
remains:
Plants acquire nutrients from the soil, which is composed, among other things, of decayed plant and animal remains. So even those who assume they subsist solely on a plant-based diet actually eat animal remains as well.
Somehow this was groundbreaking news.
Despite “about 20 years as a vegetarian, this guy totally
missed the point. Being vegetarian isn’t about personal purity; it’s about protecting
animals from needless suffering.
Animals on factory farms are subjected to horrors few of us
can even imagine. Intensively confined, mutilated without painkillers, and
ruthlessly slaughtered, farmed animals are deprived of all the things that make
life worth living.
Have a look:
The author makes matters worse:
For example, many vegetarians cite the sentience of animals as a reason to abstain from eating them. But there’s good reason to believe that plants are sentient, too. In other words, they’re acutely aware of and responsive to their surroundings, and they respond, in kind, to both pleasant and unpleasant experiences.
It’s hard to imagine why someone who has been vegetarian for
years would make the argument for plant sentience. Even if he can’t tell the
difference between cutting an animal’s throat and mowing the lawn, I think the
rest of us can.
For the plant rights activists out there: Vegetarians and
vegans eat far fewer plants than the billions of animals who are bred to be
killed.
So enough of the bogus excuses. The truth is that the best
thing any of us can do to help animals suffering needlessly on factory farms is
simply to leave them off our plates.
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