I’m happy to have clicked a pic of dead fishes, the last time I went to my nearby fish market.

Happy because it started a healthy debate on one of the most debated topics : Being a Vegan Vs. Non-Vegan & it led me to do a research on the Internet over the lazy weekend.

Before arguing the points I would like to clarify my own stand point in this whole debate: It really doesn’t matter & is a personal(often by birth, religion etc.) choice. IT’S A MATTER OF CHOICE. None is better or worse & we shouldn’t try to impose our behavior or eating habit on others. Period.

p.s. Btw, I’m a hard core non-vegan & love to savor my taste buds with anything except beef. (Again, not beef because my decision to stay non-vegan is what I got through birth. We are Hindus and we don’t eat beef. As simple as that)

So let’s start with the most widely stated argument by any hardcore Vegan: We should not eat animals because they are sentient beings. Sentient means awareness: state of elementary or undifferentiated consciousness. As we all know(because we as humans are scientifically proven to be sentient: we feel pain, we have a nervous system etc.)

So the vegan club believes that plants don’t have a nervous system or they are not sentient & hence it’s a better way way of living. Although they are alive, it’s ok to kill them coz they don’t jump out of your frying pans when you try to dip your uncut potato into the boiling water.

Firstly, let me take a unscientific approach. How many of you have seen that a potato kept at a basket for a long time grows buds & if we bury it in the ground, it will grow. That means it still has life in it.

See, the basic premise is that it is violent to kill any life form. Jain priests(who follow Mahavira) wear face masks around their mouth because they fear that by talking or coughing they might kill life forms in the air like bacteria & other microorganisms. Point noted.

So by eating plants aren’t we also killing a life?

The hard core vegan might still say no because the plant can’t feel anything, right? They are merely there for our relishing?

Let me counter argue this point scientifically now.

Back in 1966, a fellow named Cleve Backster(research scientist) did an interesting experiment. He connected a plant to a polygraph(which is used as lie detectors). He said the machine registered changes as soon as he began to contemplate burning the plant’s leaves.

He reported observing that a polygraph instrument attached to a plant leaf registered a change in electrical resistance when the plant was harmed or even threatened with harm. He argued that plants perceived human intentions, and as Backster began to investigate further, he also reported a finding that other human thoughts and emotions caused reactions in plants that could be recorded by a polygraph instrument. His work was in part inspired by the research of Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose, who claimed to have discovered that playing certain kinds of music in the area where plants grew caused them to grow faster.

There will always be another section of researchers who would like to counter argue him & that’s exactly what happened. The article was met with wide criticism of his research methods. However Backster gained the interest of other researchers and expanded his experimental range to test for primary perceptions in other life forms such as yogurt, bacteria and human cells.

More recently, in 2004, scientists in Italy & Genmany conducted various experiments that suggests that plants under threat can marshal a positively devilish measure of cunning. They communicate the danger to plants nearby; and also call in help from other creatures.

Biologists at the University of Turin and the Max Planck Institute in Jena were reported to have found evidence that plants sensed — and reacted to — the presence of hungry, leaf-chomping grubs. Their response was to emit an odour similar to lavender. This alerted other plants to the presence of a predator. The intriguing question raised by the study is whether, at the start of the process they describe, there is something that can be termed fear in plants?

The only real difference, that we know of between animals and plants, is that they don’t move like we do, cant really communicate like animals do, and cant look you in the eye during slaughter. That is it. Otherwise there is NO real difference. And they have different means, mechanisms & maybe not yet discovered methods of doing these same things. We need not have the same methods. Dissimilarity doesn’t mean absence.

So to make an argument that since we are compassionate being we should not kill animals. This same argument can be applied to plants too. Even they feel. Just because it’s not widely accepted or ‘proven’ by the scientific community doesn’t mean they aren’t sentient beings.

As an analogy let me put forward a classical argument: the earth is flat. Earlier people believed that the earth is flat & later it was confirmed that we were actually wrong. So ignorance can’t be taken as an argument. Science today can’t be said to be at it’s peak. We are not in a position that science has done it’s work, discovered everything & now is sipping iced tea watching Simpsons. Absolutely not.

As Newton beautifully sums up my above argument in his famous quote: “I was like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.”

No wonder he was a great scientist. He understood that science is a vast ocean full of mystery which is yet to be fathomed into.

So the question is : Is a vegan lifestyle better than a mixed(sometimes called omnivorous) diet?

Its a privilege we have as humans to choose to be a vegetarian or not. It’s a matter of choice. There really is no right or wrong way to go about it. And since at this point in time its a matter of choice, it doesn’t matter. You eat what you choose to eat. Just like we have the right to believe in whatever we wish, religion wise.

After a bit of research, I even found out that it’s not good to switch from one side to the other(veg to non veg or reversal) without seeking medical advice. Our systems are used to a diet since our birth & to switch abruptly is not recommended. A slow medically advised transition is what is always recommended.

I have a quite chilled-out way of looking at the whole debate. It’s like religion.

When you’re born: you get a religion by default. You didn’t have a choice.

When you’re born: you get a diet by default. You didn’t have a choice.

Finally, even AR Rahman was Hindu by birth. But who cares? It’s the music he makes that makes him the legend he’s today, not his religion.

Hope I made sense.

Source:

http://www.spiritualforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=13162

http://www.hindu.com/seta/2004/04/22/stories/2004042200331600.htm

http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/plants/news-feeling-plants-how-sensitive-flora

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleve_Backster