Gentle World is a non-profit, 501(c)(3) educational organization. Can you give me some info and a list of websites that detail how and why plants can't feel pain. We animals, being mobile, are, unlike plants, equipped with bodies with pain receptors for our survival, but even if plants are in some way able to feel distress, as vegans, we harm a tiny fraction of the plants that eating the flesh While plants do have self-defense mechanisms, it doesn’t mean they feel pain or suffer in the same way all animals do. Since plants do not possess a nervous system, plants have neither the mechanism for feeling pain, nor the brain to process emotions. Plants don’t feel pain, they detect damage. Cutting down an acre of rainforest is not just killing trees; it is also destroying webs of life that took millions of years to evolve, resulting in loss of habitat for both animals and plants, and driving the largest mass extinction of species in 65 million years. Like most people, I was raised eating meat, dairy, and eggs, and I believed the official stories, like the protein story, the calcium story, the human superiority story, and the plants feel pain too story. Mimosa is a plant, which looks something like a fern, that collapses its leaves temporarily when it is disturbed. With further research, I learned, for example in The World Peace Diet, that everyone in our culture is injected with a small repertoire of rationalizations to use whenever the question of meat and dairy eating comes up. First, do plants actually feel pain in any way similar to an animal or human? In America, 70 to 80 percent of our corn, wheat, oats and soy are fed to the 10 billion land animals killed annually. I now realize that the only reason I ever ate meat, dairy, and eggs was because of the community I was raised in, and the examples and stories in my upbringing. For example: Plants have neither brains nor nervous systems with which to feel pain. Unlike us and other animals, plants do not have nociceptors, the specific types of receptors that are programmed to respond to pain. Vegan diets and lifestyle can help the body burn calories up to 16% faster than a meat-based diet. If you can avoid actually arguing with pre-vegans, that’s always preferable, though it does take quite a bit of practice. Can plants think? They can see, hear, smell and respond. Many plants even rely on their fruits being eaten to disperse seeds - it wouldn't make any sense for this to cause the plant pain. This will help alot thankyou. With more research, I began moving toward a vegan lifestyle, and I learned that forests throughout the entire world have been, and continue to be, destroyed in order to grow corn, soy, alfalfa, and other feedstock for enslaved animals. amzn_assoc_placement = "adunit0"; I’ve come to realize that nonhuman animals are clearly recognized by researchers today to be profoundly capable of suffering, both physically and psychologically, and that they have complex intelligence and emotions that are devastatingly abused by the confinement, mutilation, and cruelty inherent in animal agriculture. While plants can respond to stimuli, and filter the information to respond appropriately. amzn_assoc_marketplace = "amazon"; Learn why at HowStuffWorks. Do they respond to pain? We have to eat—it’s a matter of survival. Does this mean that we can say with absolute certainty that plants cannot have a consciousness or feel pain? These are the same type of cells that transmit information from our senses, allowing us to smell, see, hear, taste, and touch. Humans and animals perceive pain through sensory nerve cells. If you think about it, rootedness is a huge evolutionary constraint. Best recipe ever! amzn_assoc_ad_mode = "search"; Due to this, they can’t have experiences, so they can’t feel pain. Go vegan, the benefits are enormous. Yes, a plant can respond to its environment, for example by turning towards the light or closing over a fly, but that is not the same thing. amzn_assoc_ad_mode = "search"; 1 But do they feel pain? Yet finding out that plants are conscious would have wide-ranging moral im- plications for human behavior, including land development, farm- ing, vegetarianism, and more. What?! “Plants have feelings too!” Often infuriated by such statements, many vegans predictably reply that plant sentience is regarded as pseudoscience, or that animal agriculture actually dramatically increases the amount of plants “killed” for food. We animals, being mobile, are, unlike plants, equipped with bodies with pain receptors for our survival, but even if plants are in some way able to feel distress, as vegans, we harm a tiny fraction of the plants that eating the flesh and secretions of animals requires. Significantly different. The research findings don’t mean that eating plants should be an ethical decision along the same lines of eating meat. This new research in a field called plant neurobiology, which a bit of an odd name for it, because even scientists in the field agree that plants do not have neurons or brains. amzn_assoc_tracking_id = "veganpregnanc-20"; “Plants feel pain” Posted by Totally Vegan Buzz Team 6th April 2020 6th April 2020. This evidence suggests plants do not feel pain. Commonly asked questions about a plant-based lifestyle frequently include: Where do you get your protein from? Posted by 3 days ago. If you are curious to know the answer to this question and want to learn if you can challenge a vegan with this argument, read on. What if they could express themselves?? In other words, I only eat the fleshy part that surrounds the seed. Previous post: Cowspiracy on the Big Island, Reaching out for over 40 years, to inspire the vegan in everyone, The following article is part of a Q&A with. amzn_assoc_default_search_phrase = "vegan cookbook"; amzn_assoc_marketplace = "amazon"; Tags: being vegan, Herbivore, Omnivorous, Plants, Plants feel pain. As has been said, plants do not have a brain or central nervous system, and so do not feel pain in any way you know. Short answer: no. Even if they did, we need to consider the suffering inflicted from the alternatives of never eating plants. It’s now clear to me that compassion and justice for animals brings greater compassion and justice for all others: for plants, for other people, for ecosystems, for future generations, and even for my own bodily organs, my mind, and my spiritual awareness. But you know who does feel pain? Processing plant-based foods moves slower, so you feel full for longer. 2-minute read. And eating plants directly—rather than feeding them to animals and then killing those animals for their flesh—requires far fewer plants and doesn’t hurt animals, who, we already know for sure, feel pain. They have no nervous systems or other structures that could perform similar functions in the bodies of sentient beings. Wow! So it became crystal clear to me that anyone who professes to love plants and trees is unequivocally called to practice vegan living. The same is true of most vegetables as well, which are actually fruits, such as tomatoes, squashes, eggplants, peppers, beans, corn, and so forth. Telling vegans they should eat meat because “plants feel pain too” makes sense just about like telling thieves they should commit a murder because stealing is … People were concerned, could this be the downfall of a Plant Based lifestyle? It’s like waking up from a trance that I didn’t realize I was in, till I woke up! Plants Feel Pain Too? Close. amzn_assoc_search_bar = "true"; It also raises the question, that while While we must eat in order to survive, we can harm fewer plants by going vegan, because eating plants directly, rather than feeding them to animals and then killing those animals for their flesh, requires far fewer plants and hurts fewer animals who, we already know for sure, feel pain. amzn_assoc_search_bar_position = "bottom"; Other than saying that I cannot reason with those who use this argument to justify their choice of eating meat, I could not think of any better way to counter it. Annie Carbonneau wrote “First, let me say that the question should not be whether plants feel pain, but whether they are sentient.” Which just goes to show that there are a variety of views amongst vegans, because I feel amzn_assoc_region = "US"; Yes, they are living organisms and react, as they are able, to changes in their environment or damage, but they live very different lives than animals and plants do not have the kinds of bodies that can feel "pain". What would vegans eat if it's proven that plants actually feel pain? So, if I follow you, plants really do feel, not metaphorically, but really. She kept dropping the plants every five to six seconds. In your response, I’d suggest using primarily “I” statements, just talking about your own adventure of discovery. There is no central nervous system and there is no subjective processing of the stimulus. As a vegan, I’ve grown to realize that I was programmed by my culture to disconnect from the violence I was inflicting on others in a variety of ways. Yes, they are living organisms and react, as they are able, to changes in their environment or damage, but Unlike animals, plants lack the Again, plants can respond to stimuli, but this doesn't imply any ability to suffer. Either way, we do know one thing for sure: The world just got a little less smug for the vegan set. For example, we are taught to use language, such as “harvesting” animals, which numbs and disconnects us from the realities of killing or murdering them. Do plants feel pain? By . So I only eat fruits in the botanical sense of the word. And they do this without brains, which, in a way, is what’s incredible about it, because we automatically assume you need a brain to process information.”, An experiment done by animal biologist Monica Gagliano. Animal agriculture, which is exceedingly wasteful, traumatizes animals, wildlife, ecosystems, hungry people, and slaughterhouse and factory farm workers, who are forced to do work that brings out the worst in them. Yes and no. I wondered about that for a long time myself,” helps to create a common ground with the person you’re communicating with. Chirag Seth. In a nutshell, plants are able to sense things like sound, sun, and even smell as an evolutionary necessity because they are largely immobile. For some researchers, evidence of these complex communication systems -- emitting noises via gas when in distress -- signals that plants feel pain. Plants lack nerves, let alone a central nervous system, and cannot feel pain or respond to circumstances in any deliberate way (not to be confused with the non-conscious reactions they do have). A statement beginning with, “Yes, I understand. Either everyone becomes a total carnivore (disregarding the fact that those Most honest people would agree that there is a huge difference between cutting a leaf from a tree and killing a dog. Since plants do not possess a nervous system, plants have neither the mechanism for feeling pain, nor the brain to process emotions. amzn_assoc_default_search_phrase = "tofurky"; Categories: Uncategorized. amzn_assoc_title = "Shop Related Products"; It’s true. Paul Watson, Founder, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society June 2015. share. They also, of course, don’t have brains, so they lack the machinery necessary to turn those stimuli into an actual experience. As has been said, plants do not have a brain or central nervous system, and so do not feel pain in any way you know. 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