How do you reply to people who say plants are living things too?

So I am a vegan. I try to avoid everything that contains meat, dairy, seafood, etc. but most of the time I get someone that is upset about the fact that I am a vegan and challenges me with their ignorant question of "If you don't eat living things than why do you eat plants, vegetable, fruit, etc" How do I reply to this?

Simply put:

"Plants are not sentient."

"GO DIE Fuc-o" That should work

Tell them you are vegan because you think eating meat etc is violent. Eating grains and vegetables is still violent, in a way, but doesn't normally involve destroying the entire plant.

Living things?

You should know that you are opposed to eating animals, living things that can actually feel.

Anyone that confuses the difference between animals and plants is just making a joke of their own intelligence or lack thereof.

well... plants don't have blood, a heart, a brain, eyes etc. they don't have a consciousness as humans and animals do.

Besides wanting to hit my head on a desk because so many morons ask this freaking question? Becaus someone asking about this doesn't give a damn about the plants, s/he just wants to needle a vegetarian and justifiy his/her meat consumption.

1) Plants cannot feel pain. They have no nervous system, they cannot escape animals that wish to eat them, etc. They have no emotions, no sensation whatsoever.

2) Animals such as cows, chickens, pigs, turkeys, ducks, etc., DO feel pain. They struggle, they scream, and if you have seen pictures taken from animal industrial facilities, you can see the misery in their faces.

3) Eating animals kills far more plants than just eating the damn plants. Hello, those animals whose flesh you gnaw on have to eat something. And it takes several pounds of plant food to produce a pound of animal food.

4) If you cannot tell the difference between a carrot and a cow, you need to go back to high school and take a remedial biology course or four.

5) Or you could be sarcastic and say that you're not vegetarian because you love animals but because you hate plants.

Plants are a living thing! All you have to say is "I don't eat ANIMALS, MILK PRODUCTS, SEAFOODS....etc."

it is hard to avoid these type of ignorant responses. what i usually say is that i dont eat flesh or any animal products. and if they think that plants have flesh, just end the conversation and walk away, because they ar enot worth any more of your valuable time.

just say they don't feel the death like animals do plants don't and can't get tortured and then ask them the same question except about animals after you say that and see what they say

Fruits and veggies like tomatoes, potatoes are supplied by the nature. Nature can renew itself. If you pick an apple off a tree, the tree doesnt die, rather a new apple appears. But if you cut out a part of a living animal (how horrible it sounds) it dies.
You can also say that you are trying to go as far as possible from barbarism. The next step from killing animals for food would be killing fellow humans! You can say that you feel compassionate to our animal brothers and sisters. To sustain life you dont have to kill life. I have heard ranchers say, when you take away calves, the mother cow doesnt eat or drink for days. It even cries.

"If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be vegetarian. We feel better about ourselves and better about the animals, knowing we're not contributing to their pain".

Paul and Linda McCartney

"Animals are my friends...and I don't eat my friends".

George Bernard Shaw

"Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet. "

Albert Einstein

"Truly man is the king of beasts, for his brutality exceeds theirs. We live by the death of others: We are burial places!"

Leonardo Da Vinci

you say stfu, beat them to the floor, and walk away simple as that... Alternative tell them your an athyiest and you dont believe everything has a soul you mite get away with it, also carry around photos of skinned animals, thrown in blenders, dead things and show it to them! those are cruel ways but youl get responses lol, im no vegan i love my meat i need my portion of meat a day, if i miss eating meat 1 day il go nuts! i love them cows, nothing wrong with being a vegan tho thats cool, ask them why do they care that you dont eat meat

PLANTS
LACK
SENTIENCE.

I think you should ask yourself why you actually are a vegan. Is it because you don't like the taste of meat products? Or maybe it is because you don't like to see the animals abused? Is it because you don't think it is right to eat other living things because they have rights too? Or are you just doing it to go along with others that are? Once you have figured this out, you can either say "one must eat something to live," or you could just call them a hypocrite and move on with life. Also by correctly defining it your eating habits as not eating living animals you will avoid this situation entirely. Explain to them that living things and living animals are different. If you felt that this answer helped you, by all means the best answer choice is just below.

I reply with some of the following arguments:

They ain't animals, I have never heard a carrot scream (except when I took LSD), and I don't want to eat rocks. Now, go eat your decayed corpses and mind your own business.

The animals are rehearse feeling. The plats no!!
Go veg*an!!!!

because plant is not a meat

I personally wouldn't dignify those people with an answer. I don't think that people who attack me deserve any response.

Now if you want to say something back to them here's something:
You can say "is a baby hurting her mother when he nurses?, no, neither are we hurting an apple tree, by eating its apples. The tree is just providing us with food, and it continues on living.

Plants provide nutrition for us, and that's their purpose in life. If we don't pick up the fruit of the tree, it'll just rot, and go to waste.
I don't believe in cutting down trees, or picking flowers before they bloom, but I don't feel the least bit guilty for picking an apple of an apple tree. I'm sure the tree doesn't mind one bit.

If people honestly want to know why you have chosen this lifestyle, then go ahead and explain. But don't waste your time with people who are just rude and try to make you feel bad for your choices.

Stop refering to it as not eating living things and start replying to thier questions you are eating for your health.

As far as we know, plants don't experience pain the way animals do. Even if they did, we can't survive without eating something & if we eat animals, we're not only responsible for the pain of the animal but the supposed pain of all the plants that the animal had eaten in order to fatten it up for us.
I usually just tell ppl I don't eat anything that has parents.

Why reply at all. No matter what you say to those people it isn't going to be right or good enough.

Plants don't feel pain...but they know that. The way a plant is alive is NOT the same way a animal is alive..they know that too. They are just looking to start a fight. AND no matter how you justify things it's never good enough for them. They just want to pick at you for whatever reason. It's common sense of what makes a plant different from an animal.

I tend to stay as far away as possible from those people. A few times of trying to justify your choices to them and you'll have the same outlook as me and many others. Don't grace them with your presence too long dear trust me.

Actually it is not an ignorant question because plants are living things afterall. But you don't have to answer any question that you don't want to anyway. Just smile, say thanks for asking and say something "because they are more delicious than animals" or "because i like to"... Ssay somethig whisical not defensive or argumentative.,You dont have to answer and certainly, you don't have to be defensive and combative about it. That just makes you as boorish as they are. No point in getting into senseless arguments that nobody will win anyway.

I tell people a few different things:
- Plants have no nervous system so they don't feel pain...
- Our system is designed (very long intestinal tract, flat teeth, etc) to consume fruits, vegetables, roots, grasses, nuts and seeds efficiently (though it's difficult to prove that we should only consume a vegandiet using nonbiased research. Oh well, it's my choice to be vegan, I don't care what research people throw my way).

I don't I just laugh at them and walk away.

After the same type of questions from my carnivorous family I finally told them "I don't eat something that formerly had a heartbeat."

After three years they have have finally decided it's not a fad with me, although being a lacto-ovo vegetarian tends to confuse them. I am still shocked at how often people get mad at me, think I'm insane, or treat me like I'm stupid because I chose no longer eat meat. I personally think there is enough pain in the world as it is, without adding a sea of slaughter to it as well.

If I was vegan I'd tell them "I don't eat what could have been someone's pet." Of course there are those moronic people who will always try to make you feel inferior because of your choice no matter what you may say. At times like those, just walk away.

Have you read Animal Liberation by Peter Singer? If not, then you really should. He says, "If a being suffers, there can be no moral justification for disregarding that suffering." Plants do not possess a complex nervous system as animals and humans do. They are incapable of experiencing suffering as we do. Both species react to pain by shying away from it.

just put this Plants are not sentient.

I guess I would say plants don't feel pain and fear.

http://ar.vegnews.org/killing_plants.htm...
http://ar.vegnews.org/what_if_plants_fee...

鈥淲hat about plants?鈥?br>
There is currently no reason to believe that plants experience pain because they are devoid of central nervous systems, nerve endings, and brains. It is theorized that animals are able to feel pain so that they can use it for self-protection purposes. For example, if you touch something hot and feel pain, you will learn from the pain that you should not touch that item in the future. Since plants cannot move from place to place and do not need to learn to avoid certain things, this sensation would be superfluous. From a physiological standpoint, plants are completely different from mammals. Unlike animals鈥?body parts, many perennial plants, fruits, and vegetables can be harvested over and over again without dying.

If you are concerned about the impact of vegetable agriculture on the environment, you should know that a vegetarian diet is better for the environment than a meat-based one, since the vast majority of grains and legumes raised today are used as feed for cattle. Rather than eating animals, such as cows, who must consume 16 pounds of vegetation in order to convert them into 1 pound of flesh, you can save many more plants鈥?lives (and destroy less land) by eating vegetables directly.
http://www.peta.org/about/faq.asp

Friend i am also a vegetarian like you & many times i have come across the situation.
I have reasons to give.But see that each time you try to convince such people they tend to comment on it some way and make us bother even more.
better not to bring the topic with whomever you are so that such arguments will never rise or simply you stop the topic inbetween if someone talks about it.
i do the same & hope the next time you will get satisfied

Well..I would tell them:

Yes, they are. Plants ARE living things. However, plants don't have emotions. If you pick it, cut it, dry it, it won't scream, yelp, cry. It won't fight for its life, and look you in the eyes, wondering how you could have betrayed it.

I mean, why are there seeds for then, if you're not supposed to "kill" a plant. If we didn't pick the seeds out of them sometimes, they would never regrow, since they weren't replanted.

You should really feel bad for the people who say that, they cannot help it that they were dropped on their heads multiple times when they were a baby.
I really can't stand those people, I just say something smartass to them.
It shows how people view animals, they view them like plants. It is very sad.