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I disagree. What organism are you talking about exactly? Any plant I can think of doesn't require being eaten to live.

by soperj 5y ago

throwaway09223 5y ago
The lifecycle of an organism includes reproduction and propagation. Many plants have evolved specifically around being eaten by other animals.
- soperj 5y ago
  >The lifecycle of an organism includes reproduction and propagation. No, that would be different organisms.
__MatrixMan__ 5y ago
Anything that bears fruit is relying on an animal to come by and eat that fruit so that the seeds will be spread (either because the pit is hard to eat and the animal drops it, or because the seeds survive the animal's digestive tract). There are also several fungi and protozoans who migrate between the digestive tracts of animals that eat each other (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxoplasma_gondii https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxoplasma_gondii for instance). I'm not enough of a biologist to defend the point especially well, but doesn't it make sense that one would use different types of reasoning to manage relationships with different types of life?
- soperj 5y ago
  > Anything that bears fruit is relying on an animal to come by and eat that fruit so that the seeds will be spread (either because the pit is hard to eat and the animal drops it, or because the seeds survive the animal's digestive tract). Right, but that's not the plant, that's the fruit. If you eat the plant itself, it's dead. Same as a cow.
  - __MatrixMan__ 5y ago
    The example that I had in mind with the original comment was https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxoplasma_gondii#Lifecycle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxoplasma_gondii#Lifecycle I'll grant that no plants come to mind that have a niche that requires them to be wholly eaten, but I still think that deciding whether to eat a plant requires totally different logic than deciding whether to eat an animal. So what's your position? Are you here to suggest that "we shouldn't eat animals" is absurd by equating it to "we shouldn't eat plants?" Or are you a vegan looking to take it a step further by not eating plants that have to die in order for you to eat them? Because I'd like to hear more about somebody who sincerely held that belief.
    - soperj 5y ago
      You mean Fruitarians? They certainly exist. I do enjoy how you seem to think that it's inconceivable. HN Favourite Steve Jobs was once a Fruitarian. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fruitarianism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fruitarianism I just don't understand how you can have a moral outrage to killing one thing but not another. People seem to do a little dance about plants being not as alive as animals to justify it, but it doesn't make sense to me.

I disagree. What organism are you talking about exactly? Any plant I can think of doesn't require being eaten to live.

by soperj 5y ago

I disagree. What organism are you talking about exactly? Any plant I can think of doesn't require being eaten to live.

The lifecycle of an organism includes reproduction and propagation. Many plants have evolved specifically around being eaten by other animals.

soperj 5y ago
>The lifecycle of an organism includes reproduction and propagation. No, that would be different organisms.

__MatrixMan__ 5y ago

Anything that bears fruit is relying on an animal to come by and eat that fruit so that the seeds will be spread (either because the pit is hard to eat and the animal drops it, or because the seeds survive the animal's digestive tract). There are also several fungi and protozoans who migrate between the digestive tracts of animals that eat each other (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxoplasma_gondii https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxoplasma_gondii for instance). I'm not enough of a biologist to defend the point especially well, but doesn't it make sense that one would use different types of reasoning to manage relationships with different types of life?

soperj 5y ago
> Anything that bears fruit is relying on an animal to come by and eat that fruit so that the seeds will be spread (either because the pit is hard to eat and the animal drops it, or because the seeds survive the animal's digestive tract). Right, but that's not the plant, that's the fruit. If you eat the plant itself, it's dead. Same as a cow.
- __MatrixMan__ 5y ago
  The example that I had in mind with the original comment was https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxoplasma_gondii#Lifecycle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxoplasma_gondii#Lifecycle I'll grant that no plants come to mind that have a niche that requires them to be wholly eaten, but I still think that deciding whether to eat a plant requires totally different logic than deciding whether to eat an animal. So what's your position? Are you here to suggest that "we shouldn't eat animals" is absurd by equating it to "we shouldn't eat plants?" Or are you a vegan looking to take it a step further by not eating plants that have to die in order for you to eat them? Because I'd like to hear more about somebody who sincerely held that belief.
  - soperj 5y ago
    You mean Fruitarians? They certainly exist. I do enjoy how you seem to think that it's inconceivable. HN Favourite Steve Jobs was once a Fruitarian. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fruitarianism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fruitarianism I just don't understand how you can have a moral outrage to killing one thing but not another. People seem to do a little dance about plants being not as alive as animals to justify it, but it doesn't make sense to me.