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.
