The whole concept of fruits and vegetables experiencing suffering when they are eaten is flawed for several reasons. Some people have postulated that vegetarians should feel guilt for eating vegetables because they either experience discomfort or else that they do not wish to be eaten. Many carnivores use this fallacy in order to justify that eating meat is equally or even more humane than being vegetarian.
The first reason why the vegetable argument is a fallacy is because vegetables, although they are living entities, being eaten is an i
important part of their life-cycles.
Let’s look at berries. Berries of different types are often eaten by birds. The edible berries are swallowed by the birds. But since it takes time for birds to digest the berries when they fly to a new area, the seeds are deposited in a new area in the bird guano. The guano is usually comprised of nutrients that are beneficial to the seeds. So every dropping that has a seed in it has the potential to turn into a berry bush.
The berries being eaten by the birds helps the bush to reproduce. The fruit technically if it had feelings would be happy that they are eaten.
Now you may be thinking, “That explains fruit. But what about vegetables? Not all vegetables have seeds.” That is a valid concern. Since the edible parts of carrots are not seeds, for example. Well, in an attempt to not oversimplify but to get to the point nevertheless, many vegetables greatly benefit from interaction from other creatures. Some vegetables can reproduce through flowering or by splitting from itself and growing into multiple new plants. But having creatures eat the tubers of a potato or the taproot of a carrot increases the likelihood that the plant will have fertile soil in their direct vicinity.
If creatures are eating lots of vegetables and making droppings all over the place, the soil will benefit. Therefore vegetables almost require themselves to be eaten ever once in a while for it’s ecosystem to achieve maximum reproductive potential.
So now that we discussed the scientific aspect of the vegetable suffering fallacy, let’s evaluate it’s philosophical postulations. Couldn’t meat consumption in nature be supported by the same argument of ecosystem survival? For animals eat meat and that can cull beards from growing out of control. And this can also lead to soil nutrients. But one fact remains, and that is that most vertebrate, animals have pain receptors.
Pain receptors are usually connected to a nerve cord or spinal cord which ties into the animal brain. So these receptors tell the brain that it is experiencing pain or discomfort. And the brain can interpret this information along with any fear that it experiencing and the animal can suffer.
Compound the pain with captivity of animals and unfortunate living conditions and one can imagine that some animals experience a great deal of suffering before they die.
Therefore meat does create more suffering than vegetables.
-Tyler