Vegan Talk Forums

Sergio · Vegan Talk Veteran Joined: 24 May 2001 Posts: 224

Often when I'm talking with nonveggies they tell me that "plants are also live" and I'm killing them when eating them. I'm usually answering that plants don't have nervous system.
Do you know a better answer?

[ This Message was edited by: Sergio on 2001-05-29 07:10 ]

james431uk · Posted: May 29, 2001 5:30 am Post subject:

Yes that is correct, plants do not have nervous system. So they do not have feelings and do not feel pain (we are talking about plants that are grown by nature for human consumption. They are live, yes just like the cells in the human body. If the plants were dead then they would be no use to the human body (in raw form).

aslan · Posted: May 29, 2001 6:07 pm Post subject:

I, too, always say that plants do not have nervous systems therefore cannot feel pain. I also say that plants sustain life on earth and without eating them no-one would survive, yet vegetarians are still alive so obviously meat doesn't sustain human life. Plants have never shown any evidence of having emotions or feelings, animals do every single day.

Sergio · Vegan Talk Veteran Joined: 24 May 2001 Posts: 224

I also found argument that because plants cannot act on any external action, they don't need nervous system. (Plant cannot run away if it hurts, so it doesn't need to feel it)

Vegan Forums Guest · Posted: Jun 2, 2001 2:16 am Post subject:

I have made the comment that the plants we eat have but one purpose in existing, and that is to provide sustenance to other living creatures. But the animals that people eat - who bear young, and then nourish, nurture, and protect their offspring - were obviously created for more than one purpose. These same animals also have the ability to feel pain, fear, and anguish, not unlike the creatures people keep as pets. Would anyone eat the family dog?

macsforever2001 · Posted: Jun 8, 2001 8:44 am Post subject:

My motto is, I don't eat it if it has a face or a family. Plants obviously do not qualify.

Sergio · Vegan Talk Veteran Joined: 24 May 2001 Posts: 224

Sergio · Vegan Talk Veteran Joined: 24 May 2001 Posts: 224

This is a good link for those who tell that plants have feelings. Here they show that all experiments proving it were wrong.

Kelley · Vegan Talk Beginner Joined: 23 Sep 2001 Posts: 2

When people ask you about plants feeling pain, they are baiting you. They don't really care about plant life, they just want to tease you because it distracts from the real issue: the fact that animals feel pain. I usually respond, "Are you looking for a serious discussion, or are you just being a smart-aleck?"

Vegan Forums Guest · Posted: Nov 30, 2001 3:15 am Post subject:

He he, good answer, Kelley, I used this and the person just walked away. Obviously the person was a smart-aleck. Thanx.

catz · Posted: Sep 28, 2002 11:59 pm Post subject:

Well I walk on grass everyday, to grass we are all Hitlers, so I dont have enough time in the day to worry about that sort of thing, if it has blood, veins, heart, brain, mouth, fins, gills, shells then I would not ever eat one or intend to kill one.

Alistar · Vegan Talk Member Joined: 08 Feb 2005 Posts: 108

This is from vegetus.org, what do you think?
Just as Descartes managed to ignore the obvious when he said that animals were unfeeling machines, there is considerable evidence that plants are much more aware than we commonly believe. Using a definition of pain that is based on possession of a nervous system deliberately and arbitrarily excludes plants. Yet plants are clearly aware of when they are being attacked because they mobilize chemical defenses. Just as meat eaters try to deny the fact that animals feel pain, vegans try to deny the fact that plants feel something akin to pain--something that could be used to justify not killing them. If we ever encounter aliens, the chances that they have a nervous system like ours is vanishingly small, but we would nonetheless assume that they feel what we would categorize as pain.
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AndyBa · Lord of the posts Joined: 27 May 2001 Posts: 670

I read this article on vegetus.org.
What can I say, everybody is entitled to think whatever he wishes.
Personally I think that plants don't need pain. They have reactions to damage similar to humans' chemical reaction to cuts, and bruises.
But it is not pain that provokes these reaction.. one sure thing that
I learned in my life is that nature is not illogical and is very
optimal.
I think we could even have the healing process of cuts and bruises without pain.
Pain has a different role in our life.
Animals and we humans have the ability to move and hurt ourselves,
even kill ourselves. And Pain is our protector. Pain is very important
for us, it preserves our integrity as life beings.

Just imagine taking a very hot pan and not feeling that it is
destroying you hand? And now think about this, plants can't take a hot
pan and plants can't run from fire, pain would be something redundant
for them. The only reaction plants have is heal their cuts and you
don't need pain to do this.

Now how nature works? What happens to your muscles if you don't use
them even if you may need them in the future, right they atrophy because you don't
need them at the moment. Your body wouldn't spend precious resources
for something that you don't use. And plants have no use of pain
now... and had no use of pain for many many years they exist.
That's what I'm thinking at the moment...may be there are facts that I
don't know. I would like to discuss them.
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Andy`Ba

The human body has no more need for cows' milk than it does for dogs' milk, horses' milk, or giraffes' milk. ~Michael Klaper, M.D., author of Vegan Nutrition: Pure & Simple