That's the premise of a piece in today's Times. While the piece doesn't go so far as to draw a direct parallel between plant intelligence and animal intelligence, the author does make the interesting point that, at the end of the day, a plant is a living creature and is just as unhappy to be eaten as a cow or pig. The article goes on to list the extraordinary measures a plant will take to avoid being consumed by insects (defenses against humans are quite a bit less advanced), measures which indicate a pretty strong survival instinct.There are plenty of viable environmental, financial, and cultural reasons to choose to not eat meat, but read the article and ask yourself if not eating meat to avoid cruelty to a living thing doesn't seem a little morally relative once you know more about how plants live.
That's the premise of a piece in today's Times. While the piece doesn't go so far as to draw a direct parallel between plant intelligence and animal intelligence, the author does make the interesting point that, at the end of the day, a plant is a living creature and is just as unhappy to be eaten as a cow or pig. The article goes on to list the extraordinary measures a plant will take to avoid being consumed by insects (defenses against humans are quite a bit less advanced), measures which indicate a pretty strong survival instinct.There are plenty of viable environmental, financial, and cultural reasons to choose to not eat meat, but read the article and ask yourself if not eating meat to avoid cruelty to a living thing doesn't seem a little morally relative once you know more about how plants live.