«
»

And now for something completely different: sentient plants

Since I have to maintain a low-carb, high-protein diet because of my blood sugars, I find the arguments for going vegan irrelevant. I simply would not be able to live on grains and vegetables alone, particularly since I also have a severe allergy to soy.

But the argument goes on: Since animals are sentient beings, vegans will not consume their meat.

Now it turns out plants are sentient too:
Sorry, Vegans: Brussels Sprouts Like to Live, Too

“Plants are not static or silly,” said Monika Hilker of the Institute of Biology at the Free University of Berlin. “They respond to tactile cues, they recognize different wavelengths of light, they listen to chemical signals, they can even talk” through chemical signals. Touch, sight, hearing, speech. “These are sensory modalities and abilities we normally think of as only being in animals,” Dr. Hilker said.

So, fellow human beings, honor your place in the food chain, and bon appetit!

UPDATE
Jules is on the same wavelength:

For those who just think it’s gross to eat living, sentient things, can’t help you. I’d suggest killing two birds … sorry, poor analogy … make that a two-fer. Take yourself out of the foodchain and reduce the carbon footprint to zero at the same time!

It’s either that or … celebrate life! It tastes great!

(Lots of stuff has to be attended to here at casa de Fausta, and right now I’m also fed up with politics. Blogging will deal with the non-political for the rest of today. Your support is greatly appreciated.
Thank you.)

Tags: ,

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009 at 4:25 pm and is filed under health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

6 Responses to “And now for something completely different: sentient plants”

  1. Tweets that mention Fausta’s Blog » Blog Archive » And now for something completely different: sentient plants -- Topsy.com Says:
    December 22nd, 2009 at 4:51 pm

    [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Fausta, Fausta. Fausta said: And now for something completely different: sentient plants http://ff.im/-dfX22 [...]

  2. ptg Says:
    December 22nd, 2009 at 5:00 pm

    Reminds me of L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology who claimed that tomatoes “scream when sliced”. http://bit.ly/NO2os

  3. Fausta Says:
    December 22nd, 2009 at 5:49 pm

    tomatoes “scream when sliced”
    That may be why they attacked, ptg.

  4. Jules Crittenden » Back To Nature Says:
    December 22nd, 2009 at 7:30 pm

    [...] Fausta, eating meat is a matter of life and death. Hers is a particular situation but hey, I kinda feel [...]

  5. expat Says:
    December 22nd, 2009 at 8:32 pm

    I read the NYT article more as an attempt to show vegans how silly they are. Chemical sensing is how all living creatures get along in the world. It is fascinating to understand how complex even a single-cell microbe is, but it is not the same as attributing to it an awareness of the processes involved. We actually have lots of little critters that make use of our bodies to live (Google human microbiome) without our being constantly aware of it. I doubt that they have any ethical problems with the situation.

  6. chsw Says:
    December 22nd, 2009 at 10:49 pm

    I would not take seriously anything written by the authors of such studies until they cease emitting greenhouse gases and they return their personal carbon to the earth.