Is becoming a vegetarian/vegan worth it?

[TechnoHobbit]

Eagle367 said:

No. By my logic me and my species come first. I am not a cannibal or psychopath like you assume. I am simply stating that we are animals and we eat to live. I don't understand why eating goats should be any different from eating carrots. And we cannot get rid of livestock even if all of humanity becomes herbivorous because goats and sheep would still exist and keep causing deforestation even if let them be. They might even multiply and cause other problems because this is the cycle of life. Goats eat plants wolves eat goats and humans eat both plants and goats. It is what it is. There is no higher morality in eating plants only is what I am saying. Its all the same its a hoax a fraud an unstable illusion of higher morality and it lacks substance and cannot stand up in a logical debate. It has almost no merit and saying well one has consciousness while the other is just there and cannot move so..... yeah! Is not good enough. I might argue that plants are more innocent since animals can move and defend while plants don't have that ability. Its like killing a baby compared to killing a teen I.e the animals. I don't care if my food is sentient and can talk. It is still part of my natural food cycle and I won't change that over such a foolish reason or explanation.

Sheesh. I'm not thinking you are some cannibal or psychopath, stop being so defensive and assuming. Yes, I personally think it is more moral to eat only plants. That doesn't mean I think meat eaters are horrible people, I just disagree with them and hope that they may some day see things my way. I'm sure you think a number of common things are immoral, but does that mean you think everyone who do such things are by default evil and psychopathic? Hopefully not.

Anyway, with that out of the way. Wait, so is the reason you think human life is more valuable than the life of other species simply because you are one? It's not the most common standpoint, but that would explain your argument. 

I think you need a major paradigm shift. Judging by your wording it sounds as though you only see animals as mobile plants that feel pain or something. This is not the case, the sense in which animals and plants are "alive" is fundamentally different in almost every way. I don't want keep going around in circles, but let me reword a question from my past post, can you seriously not see the difference between how say a dog or cat and a pineapple plant are "alive"? If you can't, well, just know that the majority of people can.

As for how veganism still makes sense even for someone with your unique viewpoint. Livestock would almost certainly would not multiply if we didn't eat them. In a modern farm environment the livestock is impregnated beyond their natural limits to meet the demand for meat and other products. Should the demand for meat go down the number of cows, pigs, goats, chickens and so on will drop from their current ridiculous levels as will the waste of crops, land, and water. Also it isn't the animals themselves causing the deforestation of the amazon, it's us humans clearing the forest to make grazing land for the livestock due to the currently increasing demand for meat. It's a horrible unneeded waste.