Vegetarian lives are shattered - turns out plants can feel pain and distress too

[sweggeh]

http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/botany/plants-feel-pain.htm

Plants are apparently much smarter than we thought, and they do have some sort of consciousness which allows them to feel pain and distress in certain situations. Not only do they feel pain, but the SCREAM when in pain.


According to researchers at the Institute for Applied Physics at the University of Bonn in Germany, plants release gases that are the equivalent of crying out in pain. Using a laser-powered microphone, researchers have picked up sound waves produced by plants releasing gases when cut or injured. Although not audible to the human ear, the secret voices of plants have revealed that cucumbers scream when they are sick, and flowers whine when their leaves are cut [source: Deutsche Welle].

Wow. So Vegetarians who choose to eat vegetables because they are against animal abuse will have to stop eating plants and vegetables. What will happen? What will they eat? Will they die?

[Akrazotile]

http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/botany/plants-feel-pain.htm

Plants are apparently much smarter than we thought, and they do have some sort of consciousness which allows them to feel pain and distress in certain situations. Not only do they feel pain, but the SCREAM when in pain.



Wow. So Vegetarians who choose to eat vegetables because they are against animal abuse will have to stop eating plants and vegetables. What will happen? What will they eat? Will they die?


Lettuce hope :yaohappy:

[~primetime~]

How does releasing gases or noises equate to actually feeling something?

[TheSilentKiller]

How does releasing gases or noises equate to actually feeling something?
yeah i'd be interested in seeing the science behind it.

[DeuceWallaces]

Feeling something is merely a chemical release. All life and consciousness is a interpretation of chemical concentrations and reactions. This is basic science.

You feel it through a nervous system and "physical pain", plants feel it through gibberellins, salycic, jasmonates, etc.

This isn't new. It's called plant physiology and molecular biology.

[dunksby]

Plants are alive, by eating plants you end their lives, there is no way around that.

[outbreak]

Feeling something is merely a chemical release. All life and consciousness is a interpretation of chemical concentrations and reactions. This is basic science.

You feel it through a nervous system and "physical pain", plants feel it through gibberellins, salycic, jasmonates, etc.

This isn't new. It's called plant physiology and molecular biology.

this. I remember hearing this back in school but I think it's not so much feeling "pain" (they lack the nerves to) but these studies are showing they have a reaction to what we would consider painful stimuli.

[BurningHammer]

https://41.media.tumblr.com/cfc796d83c4b106c202572a9b97210bf/tumblr_n8b295FR221scegvoo1_500.png

[nathanjizzle]

should vegetarians and vegans start eating chickens cows and pigs and develop cancer instead?

[outbreak]

should vegetarians and vegans start eating chickens cows and pigs and develop cancer instead?
Vegatarians get cancer too......

[tomtucker]

Vegatarians get cancer too......

but they are less likely to.......

[thefatmiral]

You dont end the organisms life when you eat their fruit. fruits nuts dairy products and eggs made from ovulation cause no life to end.

[DeuceWallaces]

If you're pro-life eating a fruit is eating a baby.

Eating a vegetable is eating its flesh.

[Akrazotile]

If you're pro-life eating a fruit is eating a baby.

Eating a vegetable is eating its flesh.


Why are you scared to discuss evolution?

[GreggPopazit]

How does releasing gases or noises equate to actually feeling something?

This is what I was wondering. They can have responses, but those responses don't guarantee that pain is involved.

[Budadiiii]

another reason why weed smokers are scum of the Earth. Lightning innocent plants on fire... just sick.

[gigantes]

yeah i'll be sticking to my pro-vegetarian lifestyle, thanks.

here's what matters, OP-- based on the body of available evidence, not only did we evolve being mainly plant-eaters, not only is it the healthiest diet for us (within certain parameters), but it's also the most responsible diet for populations, economics and the planet going forward.


this is all just BS, tho!

see, i'm secretly wracked with guilt over the screams of countless little green innocents i've devoured in my life. TBH i don't really like eating vegetables, i just like slaughtering them and watching their death throes.

[Dresta]

Yet another reason for moralising vegetarians and vegans to shut the hell up.

[GOBB]

I wonder if a plants final words are from Bohemian Rhapsody "Mamaaaaaaa!! oooooooooooh, I dont want to diiiiiiiiiiiiiiie..."

[Akrazotile]

I wonder if a plants final words are from Bohemian Rhapsody "Mamaaaaaaa!! oooooooooooh, I dont want to diiiiiiiiiiiiiiie..."


The article says they feel pain... it doesnt say they talk :biggums:

[NumberSix]

yeah i'll be sticking to my pro-vegetarian lifestyle, thanks.

here's what matters, OP-- based on the body of available evidence, not only did we evolve being mainly plant-eaters, not only is it the healthiest diet for us (within certain parameters), but it's also the most responsible diet for populations, economics and the planet going forward.


this is all just BS, tho!

see, i'm secretly wracked with guilt over the screams of countless little green innocents i've devoured in my life. TBH i don't really like eating vegetables, i just like slaughtering them and watching their death throes.
Absolutely wrong.

Not all humans evolved in the same environments. If your ancestors are from Africa or the Mediterranean, then sure, they could get by largely on plant life.

If your ancestors where from somewhere with significantly less sunlight and the ground is frozen for large amount of the year, chances are that a large amount of your diet is going to have to come from what's available (other animals). Not to mention, meat being a good alternative source of vitamin D with all that lack of sunlight.

[GOBB]

The article says they feel pain... it doesnt say they talk :biggums:

http://www.screeninsults.com/images/the-little-shop-of-horrors-giant.jpg

[SunsN07BookIt]

yeah i'll be sticking to my pro-vegetarian lifestyle, thanks.

here's what matters, OP-- based on the body of available evidence, not only did we evolve being mainly plant-eaters, not only is it the healthiest diet for us (within certain parameters), but it's also the most responsible diet for populations, economics and the planet going forward.



But we are products of primates who left our vegetarian diet to become more and more carnivorous. 3 of the 4 most intelligent primates are omnivorous and part time hunters. I have a friend who became a vegetarian during his freshman year in college(he didn't maintain the lifestyle shortly after graduating though). He told me that humans were evolving vegetarians, I asked him why most of the intelligent primates hunt and eat meat, especially the chimpanzee, the most intelligent primate of them all. He said that it was a lie that some locales of chimpanzees make up to 10% of their diet in meat and invertebrates (although I think the average flesh consumption is 3-4%) and that Orangutans and Baboons absolutely did not consume meat.

There are studies that say humans didn't start to take the evolutionary leap until we started cooking meat, as well as highly nutritious plants that take too long for our stomachs to process, because our brains simply couldn't get enough calories in a day from our digestive system only processing raw food. We are evolving meat eaters, not the other way around.

[gigantes]

@number six, sunsn07bookit,
you make some solid points but there is a huge hole in your common argument.

the overall picture is what i'm talking about. because yes, you can talk about us becoming -more- one way or the other and you can talk about -when- that might have accelerated, but it's still a very recent shift in evolutionary terms. i'm not talking about regional diets in known history. i'm talking about a key element of the human diet we shared for ages.

see, the dawn of civilisation is just yesterday in terms of evolution. the fact that we're meat-crazy in modern times has barely even happened in evolutionary terms. the fact that two of our three cousins (chimps and orangs) like to supplement with animal protein in a low-level way doesn't alter my argument in the slightest.

a little context here-- primates are about 56 million years old. humanity is about 6myo. our particular species is about 50k - 200k years old.

YES-- we did evolve being mainly plant eaters all the way back to the early apes, possibly to the early primates, possibly back to the early mammals. yes, the major branch of mammals that turned to a primarily or exclusive meat diet are... the carnivorans. but like most mammals, that's not us.

YES-- a plant-heavy diet, within certain parameters, seems to be the healthiest diet for modern humans. study after study, both focused on that issue alone or focusing on any issue that has overlap, tends to support that more than disprove that.

NO-- there is no body of studies i've ever read or heard about that support the idea that we are biologically meat-eaters primarily, or that such is the healthiest diet for us. no, it's pretty much the opposite-- meat as we commonly eat it (processed / preserved / fried) is responsible for a large amount of chronic health issues, such as cardiovascular-related and cancer-related. but YES there is a superstar outlier or two, such as eggs and safe fish particularly in sushi or ceviche form.

[deja vu]

but they are less likely to.......
We are all bound to get cancer at some point. There's no way around it. Some people just die before they get it. Some people get it early.

[sweggeh]

Look at this slaughterhouse. Usually I wouldn't be affected by this, but after knowing what I know now it seems quite disturbing.

http://img-9gag-ftw.9cache.com/photo/ao0eKog_700b.jpg