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RE: Open letter to my vegan friends
Even though plants are also living organisms, the fact our interaction with them is kind of limited (we cannot play with them, just take care of them) can be a factor that make vegans (and everyone else actually) have less empathy towards them compared to animals.
Also, fruits and vegetables are meant to be eaten right?
Either way, I am not a vegan, and I enjoy eating all types of foods :)
I kinda agree with you. Though I will take an environment full of green, beautiful plants over any pet, perhaps that's just me.
The same way we came about the idea that fruits and vegetables are meant to be eaten is also the same way we came about the fact that animals can be eaten. They are both below humans in the food chain and food web. Even some humans eat their fellow humans but that's not for today :)
This is actually why there have existed fruit-based diets and entire religions and other ethically-minded lifestyles based around the idea of minimizing suffering, for example eating root vegetables or other techniques which require killing plants outright.
I do find contention with your idea that animal-based diets can be on par in terms of resources needed per calorie produced. Of course it is not easy to obtain 2000 kcal from lettuce or something with similar low levels of calories versus the farming inputs, but things like beans and other high-calorie foodstuffs are obviously vegan and have much less ecological impact than all of the feed inputs that cows, pigs, or even chickens require per kcal.