If it is unacceptable to use tools and technology for hunting, is it ALSO unacceptable to do so for farming?!

I actually do that with a large portion of my food. It's called growing an organic garden. :) I like digging in the dirt for my potatoes each season.

That said, the idea that many veg*ns bring up with stalking down an animal and killing it with your bare hands is simply used to point out to the flaws of the human body. If we were truly natural predators in the strictest sense, we would have the ability to hunt, kill, and eat animals bare-bodied... fact of it is though, we're loud, slow, and don't have either claws or the teeth and digestive systems specialized to take in a diet of raw meat. We do, however, have the capability of planting, harvesting, and eating raw fruits and vegetables (our hands are actually *perfect* for digging out root vegetables, and our bodies designed well to climb trees to retrieve apples/etc.).

Which food system would be easier to obtain sans-technology? Plants, of course.

I do believe people use their intelligence to make use of tools, and that is the advantage they have over other species.

What I don't like is how people claim something is nature when they are not really the ones hunting and are buying their food from grocery stores, or they would not be able to handle killing their own meat.

Early humans used tools for hunting. The human animal evolved with his brain, not speed and strength like a lion or wolf. We evolved to out think our prey, not out run it. To tell a human not to out think his prey would be like telling a Cheetah not to use its speed to catch its prey.

I would say it you believe the first then you would have to be against any technology that makes something easier. This definitely includes farming and processing, but could be extended to may aspects of life.

This is a good point, and supports that humans are omnivores, the use of tools comes from our brains

Mm, to be fair, I wouldn't mind climbing trees, digging, or picking food to eat. It sounds kind of fun. Knowing me I'd pick the wrong thing though and die. O_O;

I get what you're saying, but then it comes down to: should we even eat at all? Is our self-preservation stronger than our compassion for non-sentient beings?

I like plants and trees, I really do, but I have to eat something. I choose survival, and if the bean plant can't run away, maybe it'll grow legs and evolve somewhere down the road.

I would totally have a garden though. Organic, of course. I might use a tiller and a spade, so I guess that kind of proves your point.

I think this argument is more to the people who are unwilling to kill an animal b/c they think it is disgusting, unethical, etc. For example, I know people that love meat, yet would not be willing to kill it themselves, as that would be wrong, or bad. They don't want to take the responsibility of killing something, yet have no qualms eating it. They are unwilling not because they are lazy, or b/c a tool would be more convenient but b/c they feel killing is morally wrong.

It also be used as an argument that since you cannot kill the animal with your own hands, run fast enough to catch it, etc that humans are not as equipped, or evolved to eat meat as we may like to believe.

While I may not want to dig the earth, plant, tend and harvest food, I could do it. I am capable of doing it with nothing but my bare hands, a few seeds, and water(from rain). I don't actually need a tractor, harvester, plow, fertilizers, etc. I planted a small garden in the summer, I didn't use fertilizers, and I was too cheap to buy tools. I simply spread the dirt, planted the seeds, and harvested by my own hands.

I am also not horrified at harvesting my own plants. I would not have to turn away at the picking of a vegetable, or have nightmares about pulling a potato from the earth. I am not morally opposed to picking my own vegetables, while not being morally opposed to eating them, as is the attitude of some people that eat meat.

Lol. I'm sure the denials as to "who said that, no one did" or "I have not heard any vegetarian say that before..." will come soon enough but yes I often pointed out that fact myself. Forget the cave man foraging scenario, just that if modern day Western style vegetarians had to plow, plant. grow, harvest ad process their own food, will they still have the luxury of being vegetarians? Just like they k

But to be fair, if such were the case, 80% o the people who post here vegetarian or otherwise will be dead of starvation by Christmas.

Advanced human technology, unnatural though it may look is a natural product of the human mind and is therefore as natural as a chimp using a rock to open a nut or a stick to lure termites. Since humans are as natural to this planet as any other species, our activities are natural. To contradict one answer, even without tools, we can eat animals. We can scavenged off other predators kills, pick eggs off nests, forage for shellfish, run down and bite on smaller animals etc etc etc. All of which was how humans ate thousands of years ago . After all, humans did not just invent a spear for the heck of it and decided it can be used to hunt animals. The opposite, they were already eating animals and made tools to make the hunting/foraging and eating much easier, is the more likely scenario. You just have to think outside the vegetarian propaganda box.