Sound and rational means peer reviewed paper ...

I spend the summers on a (nonindustrial) farm, have taken eggs directly from under the hen, milked a cow, drank honey directly from the centrifuge and slaughtered some chickens (funny) and pigs (meh). I am well accustomed to the process.

Your vegan foodstuff also require the killing of sentient creatures - to grow food we have displaced a lot of animals from their habitats. Sometimes quite forcefully. So yeah - you probably have fewer animals on your conscience , but you have some.

Edit:spelling