I'm a vegan, but merely because sometimes I get wrapped up in the reality of eating once living things. Or unborn babies, for that matter.
I know of all this hoity toity nutritional value and substancial needs of eating meats. But I've seen people go thier whole lives perfectly healthy without eating any form of animal bi-product.
In the end, if I'm chewing on a cow, I start thinking about cows and cows' pathetic lives and stepping in thier own dungs. Some people say they aren't intelligent enough to notice, and somehow I agree, but to think that at one time they were even MOVING by themselves makes me sick to my stomach.
To the post about plants 'living', sure, they are living. But they have no will of thier own and do not feel pain. Thier structures aren't really capable of that. But animals do feel pain.
At the moment I have no idea why I'm a vegan (despite eggs). Cows actually WANT to be milked. It pains them to no ends if they are not milked and we're just helping them out a little. But I suspect that is only attributed to free range cows... :skull2: Oh, nevermind.