There are some fruitarians who only eat plants that have fallen from trees. Some don't eat seeds because they believe they're future plants.
To each their own, I say! Personally, I don't think of plants as sentient beings. I do try to be respectful of our planet and most natural things. (exceptions are disease-ridden parasites like ticks, mosquitoes, fleas, etc. I've no respect for them).
Many people, "vegans" (whatever that is taken to mean) or otherwise choose their food based upon what they like or what they deem to be good for their health rather than whether anything does or does not like to be eaten.
Not sure what that has to do with my answer. I was telling you that many people who choose to eat that way do so for health reasons rather than what you said.
That is a term I never heard until perhaps 10 years ago. People my age thought in terms of being vegetarians or strict vegetarians. Nobody said "vegan" and I would never use such a term. Plus I have had people tell me it means other things than what you have listed.
While I am certain that some vegans and vegetarians choose not to eat animals for health, taste preference and environmental reasons, the majority choose these diets because they don't wish to participate in harming/killing animals.
I thought this was going to be horrifying and I would never eat again. lol
The fact that something living responds to stimulus doesn't mean it has an active brain nor feel pain. I suppose if it were true, that plants genuinely felt pain, many would gravitate to plants that do not or do as Savvy mentions and simply eat the fruit on the ground.
Many of us read The Secret Life of Plants oh 40 years ago. In which it was demonstrated that plants responded to a nearby similar plant being harmed or eaten.
Most people like the smell of cut grass, but the scent is actually a signal of distress, plants release gasses equivalent to the reason we cry out in pain.
officegirl 