In regards to eating meat

[Diana]

These points are about industrial practices. They don't really contribute to the spiritual significance of eating meat, IMO.

If you want to say that people would choose not to kill their own meat, that is fine but it is nothing more than a theory. It is like saying, if people had to grow their own food, they would starve. I say, if people had to grow their own food, and given the opportunity to kill a chicken a week later, I bet 99.9% would kill the chicken.

In my opinion, everything has to do with spiritual significance. How do you compartmentalize your life and say: this is significant but that isn't in regards to my spirit and whole being (which is most likely much greater that we can even imagine)? If you consume the products from an industry producing harm, you are party to it.

Regarding killing the animal one has raised: this is a step in the right direction by raising the animal and allowing it to have a decent existence, then killing humanely (a symbiotic relationship). Same for plants. The plants, however, depending upon the plant, don't necessarily die, as in the case Pickle cited of the kale in his backyard, and certainly fruits and seeds "need" to be eaten to propagate; so the point remains that the results of eating plants and animals are different.