Do Plants Feel Pain?
Plants can communicate with one another, sense their environment, and react to danger. But can they suffer?
Plants are sensitive. Some can hear the sounds of a munching caterpillar and respond by releasing defensive chemicals. Others can smell scents as subtle as that of an approaching animal. Many can see light using photoreceptors, and certain carnivorous plants can even feel the footsteps of their prey. From our anthropocentric perch, it’s easy to view plants as inanimate objects — evidently, they are something more.
However, being able to sense is not the same as having an experience of those senses. Just because Siri can hear what I’m saying doesn’t mean she has the conscious experience of listening, and even though Tom Nook smiles when he sees me, it doesn’t mean he’s happy. It is possible plants fall into this same category, responding to the world on autopilot, reflexively producing whatever behaviors their environment draws out of them, without ever truly feeling anything. It’s possible, for them, that there is no “ghost in the machine.”
The question of plant sentience is more than a matter of intellectual curiosity. Though it may seem silly to care about plants, this is a matter of practical ethics: If plants are conscious, watering your garden could become a moral duty, and…
