I don't know about the whole vegetables feeling pain thing. I suppose wheras the pain and suffering of an animal is evident, you don't get much in the way of feedback from fruit and veg!

I'm a vegetarian and my philosophy is just that I don't eat anything I'm not prepared to get to my dinnerplate myself. If eating meat is natural instinct to animals or humans then to me that means they are happy to hunt themselves, not make an industry out of it so people don't have to think about what's involved in getting meat to your plate. I don't want to and couldn't, slaughter and butcher an animal so I don't feel it is natural for me to eat it. Maybe if I were desperately starving and my life depended on eating an animal, or even a person then I would, but as it stands now I have no need or desire to eat it and I like the fact that animals don't have to be killed for my benefit.

I don't feel the way the meat industry is generally run these days puts the welfare of the animals as a major importance - people have already mentioned some of the practises. I'd love to see that change. In the wild, animals that hunt take their prey from its natural habitat but the way we take meat from animals is entirely different and unnecessarily cruel. I know nature can be cruel but to me there's a difference when it's premeditated and commercial.