I recently read an article on this site from a man explaining why he doesn’t eat meat. He deemed it unethical, stating that it is not necessary for human beings to eat animals.

Okay, that’s good. I was happy reading his point of view.

Read more: Why I don't eat animals

So, I ask – then what do you eat? I am sure all the vegetarians and vegans of the world will get up and say: Plants, fruits and vegetables. But what if I were to tell you that it is unethical for you to eat even those?

Why?

Because countless research has proved even plants have feelings. And they know when they are being cut, plucked or chopped. To be honest, you are crueller if you eat a potato because you are killing something that cannot, in any audible sense, cry out.

I am sure most of you don’t know this. But plants can sense when you eat them. That, my friend, amounts to a different level of brutality.

I kid you not, this is all based on factual research done in the past and present. I remember in school we were being taught about an experiment done by Jagadish Chandra Bose. It was on plant perception. The findings were remarkable, because the plants showed similar patterns of what animals feel when they near death.

So now this poses a conundrum. What should you eat?

For the ethically aware, the only things you can really eat are those that have died naturally, be they plant or animal. But that creates a lot of hygiene and health-related problems. Research, here again, has proven that it can be quite harmful. Decaying products have various levels of toxins that can be fatal.

So, is it unethical for us to farm animals? Is it cruel to butcher and eat them?

Let me honest here, I really don’t mind. Not because I am an inhumane person, but because it is obvious. Not everybody can fish, hunt or farm. Would you want those (me included) to not have our choice of food?

Are human beings the only species that does this?

No. Farming and cultivating is present in the animal kingdom, as well.

One prime example is the farming ant. Several ant species herd aphids in much the same way that humans herd cattle take their milk and meat. Instead of milk, aphids excrete a sugary honeydew that the ants devour.

The ants go to great lengths to care for their aphids, often training them to defecate in a way that makes it easier for the ants to gather and eat the honeydew. In fact, the well-trained aphids will often withhold their honeydew until they are "milked" by ants.

Even more fascinating, ants will carry their aphids to new pasture lands and protect them from predators. In extreme cases, ants will clip off the wings of their "domesticated" aphids to prevent them from flying away when they mature.

I am astonished. That is so much of a human trait of cultivation.

So, taking just that one example, if I am cruel and unethical for eating meat, then the ants are also unethical and barbaric.

But we wouldn’t have anyone go and tell them that. After all, ant bites are quite painful!