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“I am not a vegetarian because I love animals; I am a vegetarian because I hate plants.”  -A. Whitney Brown

More times than I find amusing, I’ve been asked, “But what about killing plants? How do you know they don’t feel pain too?” 

So, for those of you who are truly concerned about the well-being of plants…

Given our current scientific understanding, plants do not appear to experience pain. Pain, as we know it and observe it in other beings (mammals, reptiles, and fish) comes from a nervous system, and more specifically, from nerve cells called nociceptors.  These nociceptors send a message through the nervous system to the brain, which is interpreted as pain. 

Plants do not have a nervous system, they do not have nociceptors, and they don’t have a brain.
(Neither do insects, which is a topic outside the scope of this blog, but certainly an interesting factoid.)

However, if plants do feel “pain”, it is a very different type of pain than what animals experience.  And if you are concerned that eating plants contributes to the abundance of abuse in our food system, adopting a vegan diet would cause much less pain and suffering for both animals and plants.  The animals raised for meat, milk, and eggs eat many times more plants than the entire human population. 

Eighty percent of the corn grown in the US and 95% of oats grown in the US are eaten by livestock.  Sixteen pounds of grain and soybeans are required to produce one pound of beef.  Millions of acres of forests are cleared to grow food for livestock.

And if you simply can not bear to harm anything living, be it animal or plant, you can just live off twinkies, which I’m pretty sure contain only synthetic ingredients*. 

*Actually, twinkies contain:
Enriched Wheat Flour (enriched with iron and B vitamins), Sugar, Corn Syrup, Water, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Vegetable and/or Animal Shortening (containing one or more of partially hydrogenated soybean, cottonseed or canola oil, and beef fat), Dextrose, Whole Eggs, Modified Corn Starch, Cellulose Gum, Whey, Leavenings (sodium acid pyrophosphate, baking soda, monocalcium phosphate), Salt, Cornstarch, Corn Flour, Corn Syrup Solids, Mono and Diglycerides, Soy Lecithin, Polysorbate 60, Dextrin, Calcium Caseinate, Sodium Stearol Lactylate, Wheat Gluten, Calcium Sulphate, Natural and Artificial Flavours, Caramel Colour, Sorbic Acid (to retain freshness), Colour added (yellow 5, red 40)

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Breakfast: Trail mix
Lunch: Leftover risotto and mashed potatoes
Dinner: Green curry tofu and vegetables