Steak

[Tea Earl Grey Hot]

This conversation has raised some issues that I've never been able to fully get out of.

1. Why is it less immoral (or not immoral at all) to kill an animal than a human for food?

I've never felt compelled to seek a justification. It is only from the point of view that sees us as rational beings that the idea even comes up.

Well, we are rational beings. Just because lower animals apparently don't have the capacity to reason isn't a reason to stop being rational. You can't just try to shut off your rational faculties so you can engage in some activity guilt free. If I were to take your argument and take it to the absurd (argument ad absurdum), I can justify any act such as human murder, rape, slavery etc. Your application of your argument is purely arbitrary and inconsistent.

Vegetables are alive when we rip them out of the ground but that doesn't deter me either.

Vegetables are not conscious. They don't think, perceive, have desires, etc. They're little different than rocks in that regard.

It is important to remember that we are animals ourselves and therefore part of the dance of eating and being eaten.

This is a fallacious argument of appeal to nature. Just because we're animals and part of the food chain does not justify that we can willingly be part of that system.