On the topic of vegetarianism the following question is raised in many circle:
how can you say that you are not causing greater pain to the plants when you kill them for your sustenance? We eat a plant by tearing it limb from limb. Who’s to say this is not barbaric? What is the difference between eating animals and plants?
For them here is the answer:
On Planet Earth, as you know, there are living and non-living beings. Amongst the living beings, we have a wide variety such as animals, birds, reptiles, aquatics, insects, plants, microbes etc. And of course, humans. One of the biggest priorities of all living beings is survival. The main activity in survival is consumption of food besides other occupations such as defending, mating and sleeping.
Plants are photoautotrophic which means that they carry out photosynthesis to acquire energy. Basically, they need to “eat”, carbon dioxide, water and sunlight for their sustenance.

Humans and animals are heterotrophs which means that they need organic substrates to get its energy. They need to consume other autotrophs and heterotrophs to get its energy. In this material world, every item is food for another living being.

The human body does not have the facility to survive on such bare essentials as plants. And neither do they have the facility to hunt and eat flesh like the wild animals such as lions. If you look at the physiological comparisons, there is much similarity between a herbivore and a human being in terms of teeth, intestinal tract and strength of stomach acid compared those in meat-eating animals. We have a much better facility for a vegetarian consumption than meat. Our dear science has proven this. Compared to plants, the animal world has a more closer life style and biological make up to humans. By this I mean that they too eat, mate, sleep, defend and possess systems such as circulatory, respiratory, reproductive, excretory and nervous systems. As a result, its easy for us to understand the pain of animals because we ourselves can experience it. When a dog breaks its bone, the master immediately is upset because he can relate to the pain and the sounds of agony. But naturally, we do not feel any such emotions when a stem is broken of a plant.

Most people admit that they eat meat for the taste of the tongue. Some say that they are used to eating meat because they were introduced to it right from a very young age and never thought of the act as barbaric. It’s become more of a habit now. Many people are also ignorant of the many varieties of wonderful dishes that can be prepared from vegetable sources which completely eliminates the need to eat the dead bodies of animals. Nowadays, humans are ready to eat meats of all kinds. They want them all !

In a food chain there is an intricate relationship between the animal that is feeding and the animal who is fed upon. Recent studies are commenting that if you remove humans completely out of this planet, it will not damage the ecosystem at all. Plants will just grow over what man has created and one will never know if he ever existed. However, if you remove a single species of an ant, the ecosystem will start to collapse. Therefore, in order to maintain the fragile ecosystem, we must not disturb the setting through our acts of violence on animals and birds. Also taking into account the weak consciousness and zero capacity for animals to practice farming methods, we may conclude that its perfectly alright for wild animals to feed on other animals without the guilt of causing pain to the other. But that doesn’t mean we can too. We have higher intelligence which can be used to ban our ugly desire to kill.

The dictionary defines the word, PAIN as:

1) a sensation of hurting, or strong discomfort, in some part of the body, caused by an injury, disease, or functional disorder, and transmitted through the nervous system

2) the distress or suffering, mental or physical, caused by great anxiety, anguish, grief, disappointment, etc.

Slicing the throat of a cow or immersing a chicken in boiling water or letting a fish die of suffocation is not the same as peeling a carrot or chopping up coriander leaves or steaming beans. Animals experience far more pain due to their complex and extensive biological make-up which I listed before. Plants respond to touch, heat and light and in some cases sound. But due to the absence of the biological make up like those of animals, they do not experience the same level of excruciating pain seen in animals. A visit to an animal slaughter house and to a vegetarian cooking class will give you some idea as to what I mean. But then, the next statement can be, “but that’s because plants don’t have mouths to scream!”. No comments.

Many experiments have been conducted the world over to figure out if plants feel pain. Evidence suggests that plants do respond to threats and in some cases they found that they have the ability to “inform” other plants as well. Scientists have published evidence of an electrical signalling system in plants similar to the epithelial conduction system found in several “lower” animals (NATURE 360:62-65; 1992). They say that this response can be considered somewhat equivalent to the word “pain” used by humans. Does that mean we stop eating plants and just thrive on water and air?

Why doesn’t a panther think twice about the pain of the anxious deer in the distance before mercilessly bringing it down after a strong chase? Why doesn’t a sea gull prefer to fast unto death instead of stealing a fleshy fish from the cold sea? Because they can’t. Humans have a higher state of consciousness compared to plants and lower animals. We are able to comprehend the importance of life of other species and even have the ability to protect them. Eating plants and animals does involve killing them but having plants as the sole and nominated food for humans for their survival is correct. We are selecting that food type which causes the least “harm, pain and agony” to a living entity. Moreover, a vegetarian diet is not about chopping down a tree or removing the plant species from this planet. The very nature of responsible farming and responsible consumption would ensure the proper survival of man and abundance of vegetable matter.
In the human world, if a man kills another, then the justice system kills the guilty party. Similarly, when man kills animals, God ensures his punishment. Humans are obligated to be both informed and obedient. There is no excuse for not sitting down and studying the impact our actions can have on all those around us.
regular killing of animals and their consumption of meat causes a rise of negative personality traits within oneself such as hostility, cruelty, depression, arrogance, apathy, insensitivity, anxiety and envy. Whereas a vegetarian diet maintains the human in the mode of goodness.
compiled by veerabahu kannan (advocatekannan@fastmail.fm)

very nice explanation which i've not read so far like this about importance of veg.