It's not about being alive, it's about having emotions and the ability to feel pain.

Plants don't cry out for days when their children are taken away from them. Plants don't remember your face, come up to you and want attention. Plants don't scream when they are killed (no matter what some edgy research shows).

Or to put it more simply, would you feel bad pulling a plant out the ground? I would imagine probably not. Would you feel bad pulling the lever and watching as a pig is lowered into a gas chamber? Or while slitting a cow's throat? I would imagine probably yes (hence why slaughterhouse employees have so many mental health issues and there is such high turnover).

> it's about having emotions and the ability to feel pain

That's just a random line you have drawn.

> Plants don't cry out for days when their children are taken away from them.

Plants do feel pain and react to their surrounding. They are more primitive creatures though.

> would you feel bad pulling a plant out the ground?

Yes, I wouldn't do it and I am from a country where pulling an olive tree is illegal (with a jail sentence).