The choice of a vegan as a good habit is respectful, but hopefully one will appreciate a viewpoint that aims at questioning human actions and beliefs. As we achieve scientific progress we have become less imaginative and curious. Machines and automation have made us pusillanimous to challenge age old beliefs. We refuse to even hear people since the deafening roar of our orthodox beliefs have made us less approachable. Even a compelling argument doesn’t evoke our intelligence. Allow me in all humility to put forth my views on life. As vegans tend to talk about cruelty to animal life, one can similarly talk eloquently and quite furtively about plant lives.

Let me make it clear that I do not justify the consumption of meat since I believe that consuming any life form is unjustified. It’s just that we humans are passing thorough this phase of our evolution where our food habits haven’t evolved to contain cruelty to life forms.

Human beings consume life, to survive, and that includes any form of living organism. However, we do not see a compelling case for cruelty to lives other than those of animals. Since we have less empathy to all forms of non animal life. We humans are a part of the animal kingdom so many of us see life juxtaposed in our blurred and rather biased vision towards animal life. We do not emphasize with life forms which cannot see, feel, move, speak, display emotions or enact any behavior which is non human. So we tend to be humane, provided, that form of life is animal life. And here again, our inherent loathe of non mammalian animal life is pretty damning and obvious.

Plants don’t cry out loud and complain and since we do not hear them we remain oblivious to their plight. We consider them to be lower forms of life, so we don’t feel bad or create an outcry when we pluck a fruit or flesh out a corn or cut a tree or clear forests for industrial development. This nihilistic argument that which form of food is better for mankind is injurious and pretty egregious for our intellect. We humans have to kill life forms to survive , life gives energy and life when taken gives life ! Plant life is equal to human life or animal life , it’s just that you and I refuse to hear their pain or cry. Let’s not argue that eating plant life is less violent than eating animals. The red color of blood alone doesn’t resemble life. Similar to how we clone animals, inject them with hormones to enhance growth, artificially inseminate them, biologically alter their genes so also we do that with plants. However, we don’t sound sympathetic to the genetic cause and mutilation of plants as we tend to do with animal life.

A time will come in future when humans shall get energy from non life forms but for that human evolution has to reach a different stage. We may completely stop consuming any life form and get energy from some source similarly to how plants obtain energy from the sun.

We should stand and sound philosophically less divisive and jingoistic on this issue . I fail to comprehend how eating plant life is less evil then consuming animal life. Both are equally obnoxious but essential for the survival of our race. To take this argument in to the future, maybe, when we may encounter extra terrestrial life form during our galactic sojourns, we will show no empathy if that life form doesn’t resemble animal form. Even Hollywood with its many space oriented movies has always stuck to an extra terrestrial life form which resembles animal life. One may call it paucity of imagination amongst script writers or unwillingness to accept other forms of life. It is time to shed our legacy of bias towards life forms and be humane when we slaughter and butcher animals or plants or come across a life form in the future that we cannot imagine or comprehend as of today.

Humans have been gifted with free will and intellect and so cannot be pliant to inferior reasoning. Reason is the sole motive for our survival. An argument if done with logic should be tolerant and appreciative. I simply aim to bring reason to our thoughts and belief which have become adrift in this era of derisiveness and homogeneity.

With respect towards all.

Mufaddal Idris Khumri