Why can't monks eat meat? Plants are alive. Don't they kill if they eat plants?
The scientific explanation of biology to biology is; Organisms, including animals, plants and microorganisms. Buddhism was founded 3000 years ago and was introduced to China 2000 years ago. It was the Greeks who first knew that plants were alive. Less than a hundred years ago, after western medicine was introduced to China, people in China thought that plants were alive. So in Buddhism, not killing only refers to animals, not including plants and microorganisms.