Cows vs Potatoes

Chouying and I had an epic battle about cows vs potatoes. As you know Buddhist monks, along with many regular buddhists, are vegetarian because it is bad karma to harm a living thing. So my question was, why isn't it bad karma to kill and eat a plant? Plants are living things too. He replied that it is a little bad karma to kill a plant but worse to kill an animal. "But why?" I asked. "Why is a cow inherently more important than a potato?"

This argument lasted a month before he told me that animals feel fear and pain while potatoes do not. The pain you cause the animal is the reason for the bad karma.