Do plants feel pain?

Question

Some of the vegetarian and vegan prospects have been misled by discussions indicating that plants feel pain. This argument is used by those who wish to justify their meat consumption by claiming that because both plants and animals feel pain, there is no ethical difference between killing plants for food and killing animals for food.

The truth is that plants, when stressed, release a chemical called ethylene. It is quite a stretch to refer to this as “pain.” It is even more erroneous to equate this response with the pain suffered by animals and human beings. Plants lack nerve endings, brains, hormones, and other structures that would allow them to experience pain. They also lack the ability to move away from sources of stress, an evolutionary trait linked with the ability to feel pain.

I stongly encourage the vegetarians and vegans to seek out the truth for themselves. The taking of an innocent animal life is not a choice, it is murder.

After reading some of the responses here, it is quite obvious that the meat eaters know that plants do not feel pain like animals. However, acknowledging the difference would mean they have to accept responsibility for cruelty to animals. Meat eaters will not think twice about telling a lie to try and justify the murder of innocent animal beings.

The level of ignorance here is shocking. Meat eaters must be typing the things they are typing just to get a rise out of vegetarians/vegans. I would hope they are not as ignorant as they appear.

Answer 1

The north american indians ,dance around a tree singing that they are going to kill it,they then quickly turn around and chop its neighbour down,taking it by suprise.
this suggest that they believe the tree has feelings.

Plants belonging to people with green fingers ,who talk to their plants ,are proven to do better.

There once was a famouse experiment,wherby 7 people walked into a room where there was a big plant,that was wired up to a lie detector.
One of the people had a knife and cut some parts of the plant.
then later when the péople were brought before the plant again,the lie detector gave a violent leap in its readings ,when the person with the knife was brought before it.
the same experiment was done with trees and in all cases the same result.
so who says who has feelings or souls.
and who says plants dont feel pain.

but this world is very cruel, it is murder and dinner for every body.
the dead feeds the living.so dont feel bad about eating plants especially if you produce them

Answer 2

Do Plants Feel Pain

Answer 3

What mean people are answering your question! I'm a botanist and I don't know if plants feel pain or not, or if they are conscious or not. You could go the way of the fruitatarian and only eat plant parts that do not harm the plant - in a way I would love to do that, but I do think that the purpose of life is to reproduce, and we've made some crop species, eg. rice, into one of the most successful species on the planet. I don't think that the same applies to animals, esp. to those kept inside in cramped and scary conditions their whole lives - that is barbaric.

Plants do move away from stresses - some species are better at this than others, and their time scale is obviously pretty different from ours.

I agree with you I don't eat meat because an animal has to dies for that and it is not necessary to eat meat, however, I would never tell anyone else what to eat - this is a personal choice that everyone has to make for themselves and live with themselves for it. I know it's hard to think of other people eating meat but that is not our problem - you should just feel satisfied and proud that you are doing your bit by not eating meat yourself.

Answer 4

Injury to root systems and trunks typically result in dieback of the upper portions of the tree. When a tree leaks down the trunk it is said to be 'hurt', it is a sign that the tree has suffered severe damage somewhere in the roots- usually a deadly insect ( to trees- like some slugs) in the root area are the cause of this damage. The leakage from a tree is a wake up call to it's carer to heal the tree before it dies. I think we have rather humanized trees with some words we would used ourselves when hurting. It is for sure a tree hurts and dies- we use these terms so we can simplify the understanding of damage done to trees. The environment is very important to life and the words all effectively give significance to trees and nature.

In some countries the tree truck is filled with a herbal mixture of mud etc. to close the 'wound' and some other medicinal mixture is mixed under the soil in which are the roots.

Answer 5

Look, we all know that plants don't feel pain, it's just a pedantic argument used by people who don't know any better arguments.

But that said, neither do insects, mollusks, fish and in fact most animals.
OK, well maybe they do have pain, in the general sense of the word, but can they comprehend it? Can they comprehend anything?They do not know they exist, they do not know of the pain they are 'suffering', their reactions are merely instinctive as is pulling a hand away from a flame.
I would argue if they aren't conscious and can't comprehend pain, then they do not suffer. Yet you still oppose fishing do you not, and more than likely eating shellfish? What is the difference between plants and them? I think very little.
In my opinion the ability to suffer only extends to some birds and mammals, like horses, dogs, cats, hawks and yes, those that we generally eat for food (probably not chickens).
I could now say 'so eating plants is just as bad as fishing so by eating plants your lowering yourself to that level', etc, but that would be a stupid argument. Eating plants is not wrong, nor is, in my opinion, eating aforementioned animal which can't suffer. To tell someone that eating plants is wrong, ever, is ludicrous, I'm merely using this to express my opinion that meat isn't wrong.

You may have noticed that I also eat animals which I think can feel pain. Well, I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't do it if I didn't believe the following justification true, but anyway, as I said yesterday in another of your inflammatory questions:

"...in the wild, animals almost invariably die violent and painful deaths, usually at the hands of other animals, often with terrible diseases. The life they get in captivity is for the most part stress free and healthy, as the farmers protect them and pay for veterinary care. They are also better fed and nourished than they would be in the wild too. What's more they all, despite what the propaganda merchants at PETA will tell you, receive a quick and painless death. Generally it's a much better life than they could ever hope for in the wild."

I also stated this excepts factory farmed chickens, but as I earlier said they fall into my 'not conscious and thus able to comprehend pain and thus suffer' category.

As for the oft said maxim you quoted, 'the taking of an innocent animal life is not a choice, it is murder', it defies logic. Murder is, by definition, unlawful killing of a human. Hence killing in war, self defence, capital punishment in places where it is allowed, etc, are not murder, neither is killing animals for food.

@ Michael H, that the animals don't live natural lives does not detract from the naturality of eating meat. As for hormones, in the country where I and, judging by that he is asking in the UK&Ireland section, the asker, live, the use of hormones is illegal in farming, as is selling so treated meat.

@ Princess, who claimed 'An indidivudal vegetarian can't help all the animals, but in my lifetime I will reduce the demand for meat enough to save a lot of individual animals lives, and that's the best I can do.'
And what exactly do you think happens to the animals who you are 'saving'? If the demand for meat decreases farmers won't keep as many animals and the excess will be slaughtered. Do you keep the notion that they would be released into the wild, which would be impossible, or that the farmers would keep them anyway? If so I laugh at your blinding, deluded ignorance.


But nonetheless, if plants COULD feel pain, would or wouldn't you eat them?

Answer 6

OK I'm getting really sick of the veggie bashing on YA lately, so here goes....

Irina C- where do you get your "facts" from?! 1- plants to better if owners talk to them because of the carbon monoxide we exhale as we speak. 2- Lie detectors monitor heart rate, you cant hook up a plant to it, they don't have hearts. WTF?

Adrian D- Your suggesting that you alone can't make a difference is so wrong! I give £20 a month to Action Aid. Will that end third world debt? No but it contributes. An indidivudal vegetarian can't help all the animals, but in my lifetime I will reduce the demand for meat enough to save a lot of individual animals lives, and that's the best I can do. It's not all or nothing, its about making the most contribution you can.

FaZizzle- Again, why does it have to be all or nothing? Oh I just stepped on a spider, dammit, I may as well eat a big turkey for dinner now. You do what you can to make a difference.
Insects which are born and bred in nature and then killed when they impose on a human beings home have a far better life than a factory farmed chicken- it's not the same level of cruelty.The insects are already there, we can't stop them being born and coming into our homes. I accept that it's sometimes going to be necessary to get rid of them, although I do my very best not to unless there's threat of being bitten or a hygeine issue. It's not ideal, but I don't feel like a hypocrite because I have drawn a line somewhere.
I'm not going to do nothing because I can't do everything- i feel strongly about the breeding and slaughtering of animals for meat- I do not feel so strongly about the spiders. Hypocritical? Only as much as anyone else in the world. Some people donate money to cancer charities- well what about heart disease? What about Alzheimers? What about child abuse? Certain things strike a chord more for certain people than others- i would never criticise anybody that does something to help their chosen cause.

BadGirlGimpy- I would say, in many cases, their entire life is a slow and painful death, but I won't argue your logic because by the sounds of it you actually just don't care- hey that's up to you. As long as you're honest.

AndyB- in response to what you said... By reducing the demand for meat, they simply won't breed as many.

Answer 7

You say "The taking of an innocent animal life is not a choice, it is murder." This is simply not true, the actual definition of murder as taken from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary is:

"murder
noun [C or U]
the crime of intentionally killing a person"

Seeing as animals are not people, killing an animal is not murder.

To answer your question, no, plants probably do not feel pain in the same way as animals, but still in my opinion there is no ethical difference between eating animals and eating plants. That is just the normal the ecosystem works.

Answer 8

I don't think we can truely know whether plants feel pain or not. It is true that plants release this chemical and we don't know why this is as they don't appear to have any mechanism for changing themselves to react to the stress, but we may just not be aware of it.

As a vegan I do sometimes feel that I need to explore this question more fully, but also know that I am saving hundreds or lives of animals while I do so and that makes me feel much happier.

Answer 9

has come to our attention at THE UNCOVEROR that something startling has been discovered by Dr. Bill Williams, a botanist at The Helvetica Institute. If his preliminary findings turn out to be true, they will prove that killing plants for food is no less cruel than killing animals for food. "Plants are aware," says Dr. Williams, "and they feel pain!"

Dr. Williams, and his team were doing experiments on talking to plants. He had set out to prove that this helped them only because it blows carbon dioxide over their leaves. He had one team speak lovingly to the plants, and another threaten and verbally abuse them. To the surprise of all involved, the plants that were lovingly spoken to thrived, producing large, lovely flowers. Their growth rates were off the charts! The plants that were verbally abused and threatened never bloomed. Some even withered and died.

His team then connected EEG electrodes to several plants, and measured their responses to various stimuli. "They definitely felt it when we pricked them with needles. One of my staff even burned one with a lighter. Not only did its EEG go off the charts, but so did every plant in the same room!" Dr. Williams is submitting his findings to other scientists for further review. He told me that plants not only seem to be aware and to feel pain, it looks like they can even communicate. They may even be sentient beings.

He told me, "I hadn't thought of it until now, but how does a fruit tree know how to make a sweet attractive fruit that animals will eat when it drops off, and spread the seeds? How do flowers know how to attract bees with sweet, fragrant nectar, and get their pollen spread about, assuring a next generation? They may be doing this consciously!" Maybe Disney will make a cartoon about a happy little vegetable. He will be called Buddy the Carrot. He'll lose his mother to the farmer when he picks her, and eats her. That could do to vegetables what Bambi did to meat! Carrots may in fact be more intelligent than deer. Who knows for sure?

Answer 10

i think they do. Plants have the intelligence to grow toward light and some, like venus fly traps and others, can react to outer influences. But saying that, I also feel that as long as you don't eat the root of the plant, therefore allowing it to still continue to grow, this allows it to continue living and , hopefully by only eating leaves its a bit like cutting hair(or fingernails) off , it doesn't really hurt and the plant will continue growing. That's what i think anyway.

Answer 11

I never thought that plants felt pain, but I love your question. It is well educated and thought out. I wish all the questions and answers were like this one.