nobody says consciousness is the only reason not to hurt animals tho .. to me having a nervous system and ability to feel pain seems more important
A fair distinction, of course, but largely a semantic one. That's why I edited in "plant consciousness" in quotes. For the purpose of this discussion, let's just define "consciousness" as some form of life with a nervous system of some kind that experiences pain and death.
Ok, helpful clarification, but still even experiencing pain wouldn't mean they're necessarily the same as animals, it wouldn't mean there can't be something else that differentiates the two
Is it proven that plants experience pain or it's a theory? All plants or there are certain ones? Same as animal pain, or a bit different but still in the genre of "pain"?
If I asked you whether you'd rather rip apart swiss chard or a squirrel right now, I feel like I know what you'd answer.
So I'm skeptical of the idea that "plant consciousness" means they're necessarily on the same ethical footing, because clearly there's "something" that makes the squirrel different to us. And I don't think our instincts are wrong and firing wildly.
That's why some people exclusively eat fruit. Eating fruit doesn't kill the plant.
So eating the plant's babies is more ethical?
Fair point! Fruits are meant to be eaten, though we rob the plant of its purpose by defecating in toilets instead of spreading seeds around, or simply removing the seeds before eating.
PS: Though going another extreme, some would argue - what about the microbiome that exists within the fruit?
The microbiome of the fruit would join with that of your gut unless you cook it. Surely some type of microbes will be killed in your gut but at this point I think we swing back around to synthetics if you're worried about that.
Because we can't avoid causing pain 100% doesn't mean we should stop trying avoiding causing pain. That's the mentality behind ahimsa diets.
We can avoid most pain with synthetic food. It could also be higher quality, taste better and be healthier for humans than plants and vegetables. There's been a lot of progress in that field in this decade. Still a ways off though.
I'm not sure there's such a thing as synthetic calories and I'm not sure this is possible. Lab grown meat is another thing. It is very much alive.
Definitely exists. They are commercially available already in primitive forms, such as Soylent.
As for meat, you mention cultured meat, that is lab grown. While you're right that it's alive, it's a massive step forward as it's not connected to a nervous system.
But there's also purely synthetic meat - there's been a lot of development in this field. It's still a few years off, but they'll get there.