In regards to eating meat

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At any rate, surely you aren't suggesting that the cows on factory farms are healthy, or that living in slavery while being tortured on a daily basis, then brutally slaughtered in a state of pain and terror, is some sort of optimal goal for a species?

Again, I'm not defending factory farms.

I am suggesting, though, that each species has its own mind and makes its own decisions about what's optimal for it. The cattle species, like the plant species discussed in Botany of Desire, has hitched its wagon to humans. For contrast, consider white-tailed deer, which cannot be domesticated.

I honestly and sincerely was explaining why I had been insensitive by not realizing that you might not have the same background as I do, when you said the research on plant-based diets wasn't obvious to you.

I didn't say research on plant-based diets wasn't obvious to me. I said it wasn't obvious to me that eating animals is bad while eating plants is good.

If plants were just as individuated as animals, then why didn't Ra put any restrictions on our consumption of plants?

My belief is that animals that we eat for food are not individuated in the sense that they have not attained third-density consciousness and, when they die, they return to the undifferentiated consciousness of their species. Another possibility would be that Ra didn't consider it bad to eat an individuating entity.

I've asked this question several times, and I'd be interested in your answer:

If grass is individuated, then how many entities are in a lawn?

Just a guess, but I suspect that turf grass that's all connected to each other is probably one entity, while bunch grass that grows in separate clumps is probably separate entities. However, we've been using the term "individuated" to mean attaining third-density consciousness, and in that sense no, I don't think grass is typically individuated, although I do think it would be possible for a human to work with a specific grass plant and start to kindle an individual awareness in it.

Are you suggesting that the normal, everyday events in a plant's life are akin to the torture endured by a cow on a factory farm?

Again with the torture and the factory farm! No, I'm not.