IIRC, that's not quite true. more plant form is consumed to feed the animals, which are eaten by humans, than the plants consumed by humans. or to put it another way, for an equivalent number of calories, a smaller quantity of direct consumption of plants is required than the quantity needed to feed an animal to then be consumed.
> If human rights must be extended to rabbits, then why not to
> lettuces? (Although if rabbits are to be offered the right to life,
> liberty and the pursuit of happiness, then there soon won't be much
> room on the planet for anything else. This part of the planet anyhow.)
why? they have natural predators who held them in check... species explosion often happens exactly because of human intervention, such as the introduction of exotic species into non-native environments. sure, lets extend rights to lettuces.
unless we wants moral absolutism or is looking for utopia (which many have already decried: one does not have to be a saint, etc...), we can still talk about levels of harm. the jains in india, for example, are said to hold a diet of only those products that are supplied by the plants for propogation of the seed (such as fruits, etc).
in such a scale, you do not even have to become a vegetarian. you are already on better ground when you minimize the suffering of the animals you consume.
> I would want to see some answers to how we are going to feed
> gargantuan hordes of rapidy-breeding meat animals before we go giving
> them too many rights. Or is it "compassionate" to let them starve to
> death in the desert outside the fenced-off lentil farms?
granting a creature a right to its life, or at least a right to avoid torture and suffering, does not mean that you have to house and feed them. nor is it a better form of compassion to kill them, now that we have occupied their grazing land. as for "lentil farms", more land is (IIRC) required for farm animal grazing than for vegetable farms.
> I think some of these vegetarians have been watching
> too many Walt Disney cartoons. Sheep aren't people folks, sorry to
> break it to you. Neither are cabbages. Although some people put up a
> damn good imitation. Not enough meat in their diet to fuel their
> brains, I reckon. ;-)
ah, ridicule. and this is the sort of person i am supposed to feel solidarity with?
--ravi