There is a difference.

Plants are heartless sentient beings because they do not have Tathagatagarbha and cannot be reincarnated. Emotional fluctuations may be caused by ghostly beings attached to them.

The living beings of gods, asuras, humans, animals, ghosts, and hells are sentient beings, and they have the Tathagata and can reincarnate.

The meat we eat may be our relatives in previous lives...

Please read the following short story to understand a little bit:

In the time of Emperor Wu of Liang in ancient times, , Buddhism was very prosperous. At that time, there was Zen Master Zhigong, an accomplished monk. He had five eyes and six powers, so he could understand the causes and consequences of the past one by one, and he could know the causes and consequences of people. At that time, Buddhism had already reached the stage of chanting and reciting. If there was a funeral or happy event in that family, the monks would be invited to recite auspicious sutras and auspicious mantras. Once, a wealthy family held a wedding, and he asked Zen Master Zhigong to recite sutras and pray for them. Because Buddhism is inseparable from worldly laws, Zen Master Zhigong agreed to go in order to comply with the secular customs of all living beings.

When Zhi Gong came there and saw it, he said: ‘It’s weird! Weird! The grandson marries the grandmother; the daughter eats the mother's flesh; the son beats the father's leather drum; the pigs and sheep sit in the pit; the sixth relative cooks in the pot; and everyone comes to congratulate her, I think it is really bitter.

’ Zen Master Zhigong said: Weird! What's so weird about it? The grandson marries his grandmother. When the grandson was born, his grandmother fell ill. She was still thinking about her grandson when she was dying. She was afraid that no one would take care of him. Who would help him start a family and start a business in the future? Therefore, when she died, she still held her grandson's hand and died reluctantly. After death, she was reincarnated as a girl in the Yang world. When she grew up, she married her grandson. She just changed her appearance and wore another dress. No one recognized her, but Zhi Gong knew her, so he said: "Weird!" Weird! The grandson marries his grandmother. ’

Zen Master Zhigong saw a little girl chewing pig’s trotters, so he said: ‘A woman eats her mother’s flesh. 'The girl's mother committed a serious crime and was asked to give birth to a pig. When she grew up, she was slaughtered and made into delicacies, so the little girl ate her mother's meat. She also saw a boy in the yard happily beating a donkey skin drum. Zhi Gong The Zen Master once said: "The son beats the father's leather drum." ’ The boy’s father was also reborn as a donkey for his work. After his death, his skin was skinned to make a drum. However, the little boy didn’t know that the drum was made from his father’s skin, so he only enjoyed playing and playing the drum.

Zhigong looked at the pit again and saw that they were all pigs, cattle and sheep that had been eaten in the past. Now they had transformed into humans and were relatives of each other. The meat cooked in the pot was actually the six relatives of the same family! So Zen Master Zhi Gong said: "You all come here to congratulate me, but actually I think this is really hard!" In the six realms of reincarnation, everyone repays each other, kills each other, and eats each other. It is really unspeakably miserable. ’ After Zhi Gong finished speaking, many people understood and decided to practice vegetarianism and chant the Buddha’s name.