It's my Steemit anniversary (ok I'm a day late), so I thought I'd try something a little controversial...
I salute all vegans and vegetarians, I really do and I'm only playing devil's advocate with this article as its just a random thought that passed through this ol' strange mind of mine.
I completely understand the choice not to eat animals. I won't eat rabbit, but the guilt has not yet expanded across other animals just yet, as I love a good spaghetti bolognese and a chicken curry. The list could go on and on. I have and do try vegan alternatives and I do my best to pick responsibly sourced products.
I know it's not just the guilt, but about future environmental stability, I get that, but I have just read about some fascinating alternatives that could be viable options in the future:
Can humanity keep on eating meat without lifelong suffering and torture of animals? ecoTrain QOTW
But just because plants are not cute and cuddly, or have eyes, or brains as we know them, what makes them any less susceptible to feelings of pain or hurt?
I truly believe plants have feelings. First an example from my real life.
When my husband and I first got together (15 years ago) we got this Yukka Plant, it had seen the good and the bad times and in some periods of it needed a little extra tender loving care, but essentially it survived.
However, when my husband and I split up at the beginning of this year, it started to die. I gave it plenty of plant food and watered it as normal, but it wouldn't respond to anything and withered and died. It was rather sad really.
So I decided to look into this further and found out some fascinating insights...
Do you like the smell of cut grass?
It's actually a chemical distress response from the grass asking nearby creatures to help save it. Grass usually requests help when attacked by insects, but in the modern world, it is lawnmowers [1].
These chemical reponses can actually save plants lives!
In another study [2] scientists simulated a pronghorn attack on a sage bush. The sage bush emitted signals that a tobacco plant nearby picked up.
The tobacco plants response was to emit an odour that was obnoxious enough to make the pronghorn stop eating the sage bush, effectively saving its life.
In another article [3] I read scientists have discovered that cucumbers scream when they are sick and flowers whimper when you pick them.
I'm going to stop researching now!!
So what can we eat really? We would all end up starving to death!
Hungry now, where are those pistachios...
Sources:
[1] https://science.howstuffworks.com/life/botany/plants-feel-pain.htm
[2]http://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2014/04/29/307981803/plants-talk-plants-listen-here-s-how
[3]http://www.dw.com/en/when-plants-say-ouch/a-510552-1