Dear Good Netizens: one of the most common defense/deflection mechanisms which manifests in carcass crunchers defending their choices is to say, "Well plants feel pain too, so vegans are no different". Here are some balanced thoughts & musings on the subject from a vegan perspective.
“It was only when science convinced us that nature was dead that it could begin its autopsy in earnest." ― James Hillman
Acknowledging the complexity & sentience of plants does not mean a plant-based diet is "bad", nor does it mean a meat-based diet is therefore "good". Let's get one thing straight: when you kill an animal, it is a "one & done" deal. However when you cut some herb leaves from your garden, the plant will continue to survive & regrow. Trees are especially remarkably resilient beings. Even though latest studies do show that plants emit a chemical stress response when cut (i.e. the odor), there is no equivalence between factory farming and plant-based food production nor any question as to which one is more sustainable. So as quick as vegans are to tell carnists to educate themselves about how veganism impacts the environment, we must do the same when it comes to the misguided belief that "plants don't feel, they have no central nervous system". Rather than deny plant sentience, vegans can embrace it and use it to deepen our message of the importance of aligning our production systems with the natural world! In a sustainable plant-based production system we must respect and establish a "give & take" relationship with the plants year after year - especially with fruit-bearing trees. A plant-based production system must also mimic natural cycles: i.e. the mass production of almonds is a complex process involving using bees as pollinators (check out the fantastic doc "More Than Honey") and getting the seasonal timing right. When it is fruiting season, we more or less "steal" from the trees, but - in a natural environment - beings who eat fruit spread the seeds in their poo which is a reflection of the ancient & reciprocal nature of the relationship between plants & animals: we have co-evolved to use each other in order to survive. One cannot exist without the other. Thus carnists who say that eating plants is "bad" and eating meat is "natural" are therefore very uninformed of man's ancient relationship with plants and carnivores' roles in maintaing ecosystem populations: shopping in the meat aisle does not make you a natural carnivore, it makes you a consumer. Likewise vegans who associate factory farming with the act of eating meat are taking an unbalanced approach when labeling meat as "bad". How do we shift beyond this dualistic debate of "good and bad" that leads us nowhere? By recognizing that the conscious decision to not eat factory farm meat is an act of compassion for the millions of farm animals slaughtered every year, not a demonization of the act of eating meat or the beings who choose to. Nature does not subscribe to the human concept of "good or bad" - nature (and the greater cosmos) is a complex web of relationships based on reciprocity, interconnectivity, and balance.
Before reading any further, check out this "Plant Intelligence" documentary
One of the most intriguing implications of plant intelligence & communication is a case study of acacia trees killing antelope in Africa during times of extreme drought. The fact that the acacia trees under environmental pressures communicated via chemical signals telling one another to produce more tannin poisons is fascinating. In this complex communication web - that most certainly also includes information sent through the roots - we see a collective behavior being shared. "Nature's internet" is invisible to human eyes, and the symbiotic relationship between plants & fungi shows us there is a lot of action going on beneath our feet. Remember the sacred mother tree in the movie Avatar? Everything is connected in this underground world that we do not see, but we still have the capacity to perceive & observe it. Not only does this case study turn our perceptions of the relationship between plants & animals upside down, it’s probably making many a person think, “Oh shit - doesn’t wine have tannins?”
Yes, wine does have tannins and that is not a "bad" thing. Tannins sometimes have been observed being used as medicine by certain species of monkey to help combat digestive issues. This fact not only shows that you have nothing to worry about if you enjoy a nice glass of red - it's also another reminder that our human perceptions of “good” & “bad” should not be projected onto nature: the same plant can produce "poison" or "medicine". The "Gaia Fallacy" is the belief that all things which are "natural" must be "good" for you. Ancient plant medicine (especially mycology) stresses the importance of understanding the difference between plants that can kill and plants whose chemical defenses can be tolerated. For example, it is now known that one should soak raw nuts before eating in order to break down the phytates & enzyme inhibitors. This makes the nuts easier to digest and increases nutrient absorption, but is also a reminder that plants are reacting chemically to predators and stimuli in their environment; a sign of sentience.
The Acacia trees were not “evil” trees who decided to murder the poor antelope. Under stable non-drought conditions, the antelopes eat acacia leaves with no problems digesting the lower levels of tannin. So maybe the raising of tannins was an act of natural processes balancing out the ecosystem under extreme environmental pressure - i.e. a collective, conscious response by the super-organism. Were the trees making individual conscious decisions by communicating to one another, though? Many scientists would argue it was an unconscious bio-chemical reaction, not a conscious response. Well that all depends on your definition of the word “consciousness" ...
There is massive debate surrounding the mysteries of consciousness: but it is just that, a mystery. Some things cannot be explained, but only experienced through the full capacity of senses. Traditional scientists may have told you that your entire conscious experience - what you see, smell, hear, taste, touch, and feel - is nothing more than a product of bio-chemical responses in the neurons of your brain. What a silly and very limiting man-made window that is to experience the great mystery of consciousness! Human beings also have millions of neurons in our stomachs, our hearts have its very own nervous system, while on the other end of evolution octopuses have their neurons spread throughout their eight arms - meaning each arm has a "mind of its own". Thus we must avoid only ascribing consciousness to beings who have a centralized nervous system when human beings don't even fit that limited definition! We must expand our understanding and ways of describing "consciousness" if we are ever to truly establish meaningful relationships with other intelligent lifeforms that we share this Earth with.
Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness
To truly understand the cognitive & perceptive abilities of other highly evolved lifeforms like the cephalopods or plants, one must do a few things:
1) understand that human beings are relative newborns on the block:
“The first sponge-like animals emerged 650 million years ago, land plants about 500 million years ago, the first land animals 400 million years ago. The earliest human ancestors only three million years ago, human beings as we know them now emerged only 35,000 years ago, human “civilization” only four thousand years ago. (Or maybe it’s seven thousand, scientists aren’t sure— they found some old cheese pots recently . . .) We are babies; we’ve just arrived. It would be amusing really, when scientists, with a life span of 80 years, look at the Earth and pronounce it not alive because it does not fit into their preconceptions if it weren’t so dangerous” ― Stephen Harrod Buhner
Humans are subject to our own experience (and therefore perception) of time based on our average lifespan. Time works very differently for a great redwood tree, for example, which can live to be hundreds of years old. This should be a humbling fact: what do these trees remember from across the centuries? How does this reality affect our expanding definition of "consciousness"?
2) Always remember that when dealing with plants, bacteria, and some insects (like bees or ants) there must be an acknowledgment of a different form of consciousness based on collective, constant connection i.e. a "hive mind", a "superorganism". Maybe another example to help humans understand is the following fun fact: man-made corporations have legal rights of "personhood" under US federal law. The American legal code considers a corporation - which is run by a network of business relationships & processes between individuals - as sentient, conscious, and therefore worthy of legal protection as a "person" ... excuse our French, but what the fuck? If we grant a corporation legal rights of personhood, than there is no other logical reason why we should continue to exclude all other living beings with a pulse (even bacteria) from rights of personhood under the parameters of man-made definitions of "consciousness":
“Most bacteria have far more important things to do on this Earth than to devour our tissues while we are still alive, drink our blood when we are old and weak, or fight with us over who will eat our food first. . . . Those who hate and want to kill bacteria indulge in self-hatred. Our ultimate ancestors, yours and mine, descended from this group of beings. Not only are bacteria our ancestors, but also . . . as the evolutionary antecedent of the nervous system, they invented consciousness.” ~ Lynn Margulis
3) when trying to understand other expressions of intelligence, we must a) deconstruct how humans have traditionally defined "intelligent" on our own preconceived methods of measurement i.e. brain size, ability to learn human language, and tool-making b) look to multiple examples of other lifeforms outside of mammals like the cephalopods, fungi, plants, insects, bacteria, and - even the source of life itself - water (which exhibits chemical memory, and memory is a function of intelligence).
Einstein said it best. By learning more about the beautifully-balanced relationship between all living beings and the greater ecosystem, we deepen our understanding of how to co-exist with the natural world vs. living in fear and separate from it. So next time a carnist tells you, "Vegans are the same because plants feel pain too" you can respond in a way more along the lines of, "I know plants are sentient, and I respect them. I still choose a plant-based lifestyle because that is the most sustainable option at this point in our human evolution". Check out planet vegan's first blog post to learn more about humanity's ancient relationship with plants & plant medicine to enrich your understanding of how plant-based living can embrace the sentience and power of plants. Now go outside, away from electronics, and talk a walk through nature!
“Gaia does not use top-down control over the parts that make up the whole. that approach is the least adaptable and least functional of all”.
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