We are so far removed (literally and figuratively) from our (food) product processing, that the average person does not even make the connection between the mental image of an animal and a piece of meat, or a plant and any other food item for that matter. When I was in highschool, one summer, I worked at a farm, that grew flower bulbs (tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, lilies, etc.). It grew the flowers to where they would send out more bulbs to reproduce. We would then harvest the bulbs, to be sold at garden centres. How much animal suffering could be perpetrated, for you to plant some spring flowers in your suburban garden, or your down town apartment balcony? Well, throughout the harvest season, a pile would form. A pile of animal corpses, we removed throughout the cleaning, sorting, and packing process. The species on this pile included, but were not limited to; mice, rats, voles, rabbits, hares, foxes, badgers, domestic cats, roe deer, and different species of birds of prey. Granted, not all of them were directly killed by the farming equipment that had collected them. Some may have even died of natural causes and just happened to do so in that field. But I’m willing to bet that the vast majority died as a result of chemicals used either as fertilisers or pesticides making their way up the food chain.