Arent you killing plants when you eat them?--
McSpotlight: Yes and no. If it's fruit you're eating, then no; no more than eating eggs kills the chicken that laid them. For the most part, though, eating vegetables does kill them.
The usual argument here is that animals have a central nervous system where plants do not; and thus are able to feel pain where plants *aren't*. It's unclear, to be honest; there is some evidence to suggest that plants may be able to feel something analogous to pain; but it's hard to be certain.
It's indisputable that modern intensive farming methods are cruel; which means that unnecessary suffering goes into all of the mass-produced meat on the market. There are people who would otherwise eat meat who won't because of this; my mother being a case in point (who gave up meat 5 years ago).
These are the two most commonly advanced 'moral' reasons for eating plants; personally, I prefer to rely on the logistical and environmental reasons; as they are more compelling to my mind; viz eating meat screws up the planet bigtime; it's one of the most destructive businesses around; right up there with the oil industries.
There's a good page with some interesting statistics on; it's a bit American-centred, but some of the stats are pretty telling (e.g. "Percentage of U.S. topsoil lost to date: 75" and "Percentage of U.S. topsoil loss directly related to livestock raising: 85" - this means that two-third's of the US's topsoil has been lost to agriculture due to the meat industry alone...)
In those figures are all the reasons I ever needed to give up meat without any recourse to the standard "meat is murder!" lines...
Rex, McSpotlight.
