Well, at this stage, scientists have only detected auditory complaints, but perhaps further study will show that they can say other things too.
A number of species, including tomato and tobacco, have been found to emit ultrasonic shrieks when water-starved, or cut.
This adds to considerable information, some of which I’ve reviewed in the past (sorry, too busy to chase up all the links, but here is one showing Pavlovian conditioning in trees) that show some or perhaps all plants to be sentient.
Thank you to Rhobin Courtright for drawing this fascinating finding to my attention.
I’ve always believed that if you ask the plants first and thank them afterward, they are less likely to take our harvesting of their seeds and fruits as such an affront. We aren’t meant to starve; but, we also must be mindful of how we approach the other types of life we share the planet with. (Learn from the movie Avatar.)
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My feeling has always been that it’s OK to harvest fruit or nuts. They are the plant’s payment to animals for the service of spreading seeds. Murdering a carrot or cabbage may be something else.
I have a friend, who as a young man restricted his diet to fruits for this reason. It was very difficult to be hospitable to him: “Walter, would you like another apple?”
Then he married a Vietnamese girl, and they eat absolutely anything…
🙂
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I believe all of life is sentient in some form.
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I agree.
🙂
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We need to use the Ability. In the 4th volume of the Doom Healer, Tom Black, who is an Australian Aborigine, gets plants to grow food for us we can harvest without hurting them.
🙂
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If all plants are sentient and, for example, emit shrieks when cut, then we can’t eat anything without causing pain and suffering. What to do now?
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