what makes animal suffering more important than vegetal suffering, or any other kind of suffering? is it because it's more relatable? if so, that's a very shallow reason. the most alien of pains are just as real as ours. in my mind, the cultivator who forces a plant to grow is just as bad as the breeder who forces a chick or a calf to be born, because the pain that either of those lifeforms must endure in life and death are equal. so what's there to be done about it? my stomach only allows me to feed off of life. i'd eat nothing if i didn't to eat. but i'm not built like that. so i choose to eat anything. eat all or eat none. if i were to discriminate, i'd be a hypocrite, and i couldn't forgive myself for being that.

I'm not a vegan, but I'm gonna play devil's advocate for a second. Since about a third of crops are actually grown to feed livestock, if you really wanted to minimise the amount of plants that need to suffer for you to live, the best option would be to stop eating animals.

what makes animal suffering more important than vegetal suffering, or any other kind of suffering?

Do plants have perception to suffer?
Really, are there non-animals upon the Earth that feel pain? I don't think so, although it could be possible - something akin to pain is a useful enough response to have evolved independently.

in my mind, the cultivator who forces a plant to grow is just as bad as the breeder who forces a chick or a calf to be born, because the pain that either of those lifeforms must endure in life and death are equal

As a direct result of my first question, I don't think that's true. Different types of lifeforms can have different perceptions, and I don't think vegetables have the sensory or perceptive ability to suffer as a chick or a calf.

...but I wonder if there is non-animal life on Earth that does. Probably not, but I wonder.

my stomach only allows me to feed off of life.

It is possible to eat purely synthetic energy-giving compounds, artificially manufactured sugars and starches.
This would suck immensely and be expensive and have all manner of other problems (such as the waste products generated in the reactions), but it would be doable.

interesting responses, thank you for taking the time to reply to my post. you've agitated my mind by bringing in new concerns. thank you. i love you.
>>3
i strongly believe that pain is inherent to all living matter on the cellular level. for vegetal and microbial life, it is certainly not processed in the same way as animals process it, and it may be imperceptible to us, but i believe that it is still there and equal in amount and intensity. i see it most clearly in the twisted forms that trees take, in the omnipresence of illness and parasites in nature (on this topic, allow me to go on short tangent. my mom told me not too long ago about a specific kind of mushroom that can be found in my local area. i can't remember its name, forgive my poor memory, but this mushroom is mostly unremarkable when it is healthy. it's not toxic, but it's not particularly good for eating either. when this mushroom becomes ill, its taste begins to transform and becomes much more pleasing to a human palate. i thought this was a very interesting phenomenon.), and in the incessant ravage that beings exert on other beings, the tearing apart of living things for the sake of other living things. only a malevolent force could be responsible for such a world. the destruction of a part of or of the totality of an organism cannot go unnoticed by said organism, regardless of presence or absence of a complex nervous system like that which can be found among animals. one of the main differences i've noticed in response to pain and death among animal and vegetal is that i've never seen a vegetal twitch, stiffen or contract abnormally from pain, whereas i've seen it happen with animals ranging from insects to men, though that difference could be explained by the absence of a muscular system in vegetal lifeforms. i've also never seen a vegetal exhibit symptoms of fear in the face of expected pain or death, since vegetals do not have the means to express that fear in ways that we can decipher. i'll admit that my beliefs are not based on empirical evidence but instead firsthand observations, so they may not be very sound from another's perspective, but i hold them with confidence nonetheless.
regarding synthetic foods, i am aware of them, but they are suboptimal for the reasons that you've mentioned, especially their cost for the consumer and their generation of waste, as well as their requirement for an unsustainably high level of technology and complex supply chains (unstable). hopefully someday mankind's so-called "greatest minds" figure out a wasteless (or not so wasteful) and affordable (for everyone) synthetic food that is nutritious enough to avoid leading to serious deficiencies. meat's expensive too, but it contains some pretty awesome nutrients, and there's always at least one cut of meat that's affordable enough at the grocery store. i'm not picky. on that topic, i think that eating meat is conceptually cool from the viewpoint that i am gulping down something that is made of the same thing as i. in a way, it's like i'm eating me. i fw that idea big time. though i'm not too happy with the fact that i don't have to put in any direct effort to get that meat. i think meat eaters need to take part in the sacrifice of the animal and make peace with themselves being the blade in order to be truly able to enjoy their meal. to me, the killing and disassembly of an animal by its consumer is an important ritual for meat-eating societies that has sadly faded out of practice as modern supply chains became what they are now. this ritual does not necessarily need symbolism to be attached to it because it has intrinsic meaning, but the symbolism that some tribes (i think especially of the inuit peoples and their animism in regards to this. they are not the only tribe to hold/have held such beliefs, but they are the one with which i am most familiar.) have attached to their eating habits is highly important and i am very sad to see it gone from most societies today. even without symbolism, it grounds one in their place in the world, it reminds one that they are down in the dirt with the rest of life and not some higher being. it teaches one about the pain of others, how similar it is to one's own, and commands respect, or fear, or pity, or all of those things, for all life.

plants do have signals they send out in response to "pain" which is similar to the kind of signal your hand sends. your brain is able to interpret the electro chemical signal that is transmitted through the nerve network (this likely originated through a symbiotic relationship between different single celled organisms), but you wouldn't expect a bacteria on the skin's surface to notice such a signal would you? "this big thing doesn't experience pain. I, the pinnacle of life, the amoeba, is the only thing capable of knowing what pain is"
anyway, plants use root system chemical signals transmitted over a symbiotic fungal network. see also seed masting.

"What senses do we lack that we cannot see and cannot hear another world all around us?"

I think the real question is how much animal cruelty should we allow when the animals are still alive and during the slaughtering, how little is even realistically possible, should there be penalties for profiteering and wasting meat,eating the death corpse is not the main issue here I think, treating animals as disposable junk might have huge negative ramifications if it goes on

morals is a bad way to look at it.
i think feelings is better.
i feel bad that an animal had to suffer to create my food.
i feel less bad that a plant had to suffer for my food. substantially less bad.
there is no logic to these feelings, but i still feel them all the same.

you can't understand it because it's nonsense

vega*nisms are psyops, to make people weak, pathetic, gullible.