💜 emily – if animals are made of cells, and plants are also made of cells, animal welfare should imply the existance of plant welfare?
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emily – if animals are made of cells, and plants are also made of cells, animal welfare should imply the existance of plant welfare?or what about cell welfare in general?
fungi and bacteria are (made of) cells, too, right?
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R relay@relay.mycrowd.ca shared this topic
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emily – if animals are made of cells, and plants are also made of cells, animal welfare should imply the existance of plant welfare?
or what about cell welfare in general?
fungi and bacteria are (made of) cells, too, right?
@phoebe the reason there isn't plant welfare is because plants don't exhibit outward stress, fear, or pain responses, and don't have brains to process such things. And because they don't react to stimuli or harm, it seems a lot more like damaging a non-living object, so there isn't any sort of empathy reason to care about their well-being.
However, there is more and more evidence that plants do have a region near their roots that may be analogous to a brain, coordinating bodily functions and chemical messengers similar to hormones, including those produced in response to harm or damage. There are even plants that can learn, the sensitive fern that curls up in response to touch that can learn to not curl up to certain sensations that it learns are harmless or even precede benefits like adding water or nutrients. And some tree species will coordinate with others of their same species to either connect their root systems to those of saplings of that species to share nutrients with, or to constrict around the roots of different tree species to prevent them from growing further and outcompeting them for nutrients. I think plant welfare is just as valid as animal welfare, as is fungus welfare and bacteria welfare. I do see a plant welfare movement developing in the future as we learn more about plant cognition -
@phoebe the reason there isn't plant welfare is because plants don't exhibit outward stress, fear, or pain responses, and don't have brains to process such things. And because they don't react to stimuli or harm, it seems a lot more like damaging a non-living object, so there isn't any sort of empathy reason to care about their well-being.
However, there is more and more evidence that plants do have a region near their roots that may be analogous to a brain, coordinating bodily functions and chemical messengers similar to hormones, including those produced in response to harm or damage. There are even plants that can learn, the sensitive fern that curls up in response to touch that can learn to not curl up to certain sensations that it learns are harmless or even precede benefits like adding water or nutrients. And some tree species will coordinate with others of their same species to either connect their root systems to those of saplings of that species to share nutrients with, or to constrict around the roots of different tree species to prevent them from growing further and outcompeting them for nutrients. I think plant welfare is just as valid as animal welfare, as is fungus welfare and bacteria welfare. I do see a plant welfare movement developing in the future as we learn more about plant cognition@ActuallyAubrey
– this shows plants can react to stimuli: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hja0SLs2kus -
@ActuallyAubrey
– this shows plants can react to stimuli: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hja0SLs2kus@ActuallyAubrey
– so, if plants can retract their leaves and branches, as well as do complex chemistry and communicate to each other (and other animals), they seem worthy of rights tbh 
