If it's the whole "they are animals!" BS, well vegetables are plants! Just because they are moo-ing or clucking doesn't mean they aren't living. Also, I believe meat provides vital nutrients that can rarely be duplicated. So if you're a vegetarian, just give me your reasoning behind it.
Often times criticism of veg*anism is needlessly confrontational and, often, rather irrational - as some people seem to feel defensive aroundveg*ans. It's easier to simply dismiss those choices offhand than to seriously evaluate our own behavior, to shoot the messenger.
Vegetables are, of course, organic matter and may be considered living things. No serious claims exist, however, to posit plant life as sentient. Biologically (or simply logically, for that matter), there's no point - no survival advantage - to a tree capableof feeling pain. Trees are stationary. They cannot avoid pain and, although they can bend and grow over time to capture more sunlight, their movement neednot be coordinated by a central nervous system. We cannot say the same, of course, for a rabbit, a fish, a grasshopper, or an elephant.
So, there's a distinction to be made there - and obviously it's not a new one as we've long recognized the animal kingdom, of which we are a part,as distinct from other lifeforms. I don't see what's so unreasonable about the desire to avoid inflicting suffering on creatures capable of feeling.
As for the nutrition aspect, we have to be careful to avoid confusing poorly planned veg*an diets with the concept itself. If all you do is eat tofu andhummus, obviously you're not going to do very well - but the same could be said of someone who lives on fast food and soda. You may not be B12 deficientif you live off of Arby's - but a vitamin deficiency would be the least of your worries. The truth of the matter is that most people's diets are poorly planned, whether they abstain from animal products or not. A well designed vegan diet, on theother hand, is one of the healthiest diets you could possibly choose. There's nothing about the basic chemical building blocks our bodies need thatdemands that they arrive in the form of meat. As a species, we've been eating plants far longer and far more frequently than we've eaten meat. Plant-based diets suit us quite well, and a number of long-term health studies back that up.
The fear of malnutrition is well-founded - but it's a matter of equal, if not greater, concern to omnivores.
