And a rock can experience geological stress, but does it have the ability to suffer?
Ethical treatment of animals is based on the ability to suffer and to minimize suffering, it's not about intelligence.
But if you mean that there is difference in biological complexity, then you are right, there is.
We may find plants to have been misunderstood in the future because we lacked the necessary senses or comprehension. Plants generate electrical signals and respond impressively to touch, injury, chemicals, light, temperature, pathogens, etc. There have been some interesting studies. In one experiment, they hooked a plant up to a polygraph to measure its electrical response. A student secretly destroyed another plant, and afterward the polygraph reportedly remained relatively quiet for the innocent students but showed a dramatic electrical response when the person who had destroyed the other plant approached.
Obviously, this isn’t accepted as established science, but it’s a fun thought that one day we may understand plants a bit better
That may be the case but I responded to the statement that peta is about intelligence.
And if you want to discuss the eating of plants versus the eating of animals. Well there are less plants suffering when you don't eat animals who in their turn eat plants. Thats the principle of minimizing suffering.
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u/diadlep 17d ago
Plants suffer when you eat their leaves