on being vegetarian. or my justification to eat meat

Caution: this is my personal opinion as a meat eating-milk drinking person. I have background in biology which influence my definition of living entity and my views of being human among other species. And, I am also a muslim who believe that plants and animals are created for human. Oh another note, I am currently living in a country who is a major producer of milk and meat. And some people in this country look at vegetarian with wonky eyes. Haha.

I noticed that more indonesians are embracing being vegetarian. I want to focus to indonesian because I am one and thus have better comprehension of its values and beliefs and such. By indonesians, I mean indonesians who can afford to buy meat for their daily meals but chose not to. Therefore, I am talking about being vegetarian as chosen lifestyle. Many reasons are proclaimed but there is one that stick to my mind: being vegetarian as not to hurt/kill animals.

I’m sorry but I don’t get that.

I can see why people choose to be vegetarian to stay healthy or to be kinder to the environment or for religious reason (yarrrgghh let’s not go there). I don’t get the reason to minimise hurting and killing living being.

            My understanding of this particular reason to eat only plants is that it is not ethical to kill other living being (animal) to live. Plant, as most people will agree, is a living thing too. If to kill means to take life, certain plants can not survive after they are being harvested. Most trees will survive after fruits are harvested, such as apples, tomatoes etc. But, potatoes and carrots and such are plucked from the earth, thus, they are unable to continue living. So does rice and errrr that thing that makes flour (I am not good at plants. Sue me. haha), where harvesting means cutting the stalk, getting the roots out, and plant new seeds on the field. In other words, although the plant survives, the farmer will kill it to be able to use the land to produce new crop. And don’t get me started on mung beans!!!! Isn’t it similar as eating baby beans? So, for me, being vegetarian is still killing to live.

            Another point that I want to make is the concept of hurt. My understanding of hurt is to cause harm or pain to another living being. Of course it is easy to know that animal is being hurt as they can express their feeling of stress and pain. However, inability to express pain does not mean that plants don’t feel it. I read somewhere that a research show that plants DO feel pain. Let’s move to causing harm. Picking apple might not be considered as causing harm, but how about growing so many apples in the trees that cause all its brances to bend? How about cutting a branch to get banana? Or harvesting fruits way before they are ripe so that they can arrive good and ready for us to eat? How can one be so sure that the tree is not hurt/being harmed? Again, for me, being vegetarian is still causing harm to live.

            So, I don’t get that one can proclaim that one minimise killing and hurting living being by choosing to be vegetarian. For me, being vegetarian is choosing what to kill: living being who are one not sure whether they are able to feel pain or living being who are able to show their feeling.