[kefka]

So, plants are less than animals, which are less than humans? Do I understand that correctly?

All life is sacred. The human over there, or the dog there, or the orchid over that shouldn't matter: they all have an innate right to life.

We humans have this sense that we are the master of who lives and dies. Somehow, dogs and cats are pets, yet pigs and cows and chickens are food. And plants and trees can be strip mined for their resources. But this human master is based solely on might-makes-right principle.

In the end, for us to live, others must die. That is the cycle we live in. One can renounce eating meat. Yet, what we need is a conscience and ethic of food. Or better said: make your life worthy of the beings who died for you.