This is yet another example of someone attempting to speak with authority while totally misunderstanding what veganism actually is. Firstly, veganism is not some utilitarian philosophy concerned with reducing suffering in the world. The term was first defined in 1951 by Leslie Cross and that definition was very clear - “The word veganism shall mean the doctrine that man should live without exploiting animals.”
Deliberately exploiting animals is very different from accidentally causing the deaths of animals while living your life as best you can. Accidentally running over insects or even rodents with an agricultural vehicle while producing essential food is very different to actively breeding (usually through forced artificial insemination (a.k.a. rape) and raising that cow to be slaughtered at a fraction of their natural lifespan in a terrifying and brutal industrial processing plant for a product we don't need.
To draw a parallel, driving cars kills more people every year than axe murderers do, but it doesn't make axe murderers more altruistic or more ethical than car drivers.
By your own line of reasoning, eating human meat would also cause less suffering than eating cereal but what sort of psychopath would accept that as an ethical alternative?
You talk about 'respecting the energy in everything we consume' from firewood to petrol to plants but firewood, petrol and plants aren't sentient - walking on grass isn't the same as crushing a dog. You talk about exploiting coal as if throwing a piece of coal on the fire is no different from throwing a piglet on the fire.
It's common these days for meat eaters to use the example of avocados to take a swipe at vegans, but do you know who eats by far the vast majority of avocados? Meat eaters.
Most vegans are highly aware of and sensitive to their impact on the environment, wildlife and human rights issues - as a demographic they're much more likely to have an awareness of and interest in these issues than meat-eaters. So we would love to see more research into new technology and farming methods to reduce crop deaths and the like, but primarily being vegan means not deliberately killing or exploiting sentient beings, or paying other people to do it on your behalf. So no, eating the flesh of murdered cows is not vegan by any stretch of the imagination.
