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Ethics Other News Science


DO PLANTS FEEL PAIN? HOW TO DEBUNK THE COMMON VEGAN ARGUMENT

HERE'S HOW TO RESPOND TO THE POPULAR "BUT PLANTS FEEL PAIN..." ANTI-VEGAN
ARGUMENT

By Editorial Team

1st August 2024

4 Minutes Read

54
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Do plants really feel pain like humans and animals? - Media Credit: Plant Based
News / Generated with AI in Dale-3

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The question of whether or not plants feel pain is something that many vegans
will be familiar with being asked. As veganism skyrockets in popularity all over
the world, so too have attempts to debunk and discredit the lifestyle’s
teachings. Anti-vegans often use the “but plants feel pain…” argument while
attempting to prove veganism is pointless. After all, if plants do feel pain
like animals, doesn’t that make the argument in favor of veganism redundant?

Read more: Does Meat Really Provide All Nutrients You Need? Top Carnivore Myths
Debunked

The idea that plants feel pain stems from a number of studies that show that
plants can react to physical damage and environmental stressors in sophisticated
ways, such as releasing chemicals to deter predators or signaling distress
through biochemical pathways. Some research, like the sounds of caterpillars
chewing eliciting defensive responses in plants, has been sensationalized in
popular media, leading to misinterpretations about plants experiencing pain
similar to animals.

But there are many reasons why the “do plants feel pain?” argument falls flat.
These include the fact that farmed animals eat plants too, and that plants have
neither a brain nor central nervous system. 

In a YouTube video titled “Plants Feel Pain Debunked,” vegan science writer Mic
the Vegan examines all the reasons why the argument is flawed. Find the key
points and watch the full video below.

Read more: ‘Veganism Is Dead’: Say Media Outlets – Does The Data Agree?


DO PLANTS FEEL PAIN? RESPONDING TO THE ARGUMENT





‘TWO WRONGS DON’T MAKE A RIGHT’

Mic starts by pointing out that, even if plants did feel pain like animals, to
argue that we should continue eating animals would be flawed as “two wrongs
don’t make a right.” 

He explains that the argument wrongly suggests that if plants feel pain (wrong
#1), then it justifies causing pain to animals (wrong #2). He compares this
flawed logic to someone saying: “since we cause animals pain, it’s somehow okay
to torture a person.”

“The plants feel pain argument invents its own wrong that plants suffer, and
then builds a two wrongs make a right fallacy on top of that. Amazing work of
the imagination,” he says.


DEFINITION AND NATURE OF PAIN

Next up, Mic moves on to what he called “basic biology.” He then points out that
plants do not have pain receptors or a nervous system like animals do. “They
have no machinery for registering pain,” he explains. 

He then goes on to clarify what pain means. He says that the definition of pain
in this context is “defined as physical suffering or discomfort caused by
illness or injury.”

This definition, he says, implies that the being experiencing pain must possess
emotion states. MIC disputes the notion that plants are capable of such states.
“I challenge you to find a scientist that believes that plants have emotions.”


EVOLUTIONARY PERSPECTIVE ON PAIN

He then points out that plants feeling pain would “evolutionary pointless.” This
is because animals have an evolutionary reason for feeling pain, in that they
need to be able to “react immediately to survive.”

Unlike animals, plants are not mobile and do not need to respond to immediate
threats through movement.




IF PLANTS COULD SUFFER…

Adobe Stock Huge amounts of plants are eaten by farmed animals

Mic then goes on to put forward to hypothetical situation that plants do feel
pain like animals. Even if they did, he argues, being vegan would still be the
most ethical choice. 

There are around 92 billion land animals killed a year for food, and all of them
need feeding. A huge amount of forest is being destroyed to make way for both
the animals themselves and farms that grow crops to feed them. If plants did
feel pain, we would still minimize harm by eating them, rather than feeding them
to animals before killing and eating them. Mic points out that it takes 13
pounds of grain or 30 pounds of forage to create one pound of cow flesh. 

“Eating animals would theoretically cause a lot more plant pain due to the
massive amount of plants that animals consume than if you were to just eat the
plants directly,” he says.




HUMANS NEED PLANTS TO SURVIVE

Mic points out that humans are obligate plant eaters, meaning that we need to
eat plants to survive. “Humans must inflict a degree of ‘plant pain’ in order to
survive,” he says. “But we do not require animal derived foods to survive. So
all the animal suffering is entirely pointless.”

Read more: WATCH: Ending The Ketogenic Diet Debate With Dr Kim Williams

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THE AUTHOR

EDITORIAL TEAM

The Plant Based News editorial team covers a wide range of topics relating to
veganism and plant-based living.

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