Chapter 8 - Thinking Like a Plant

Summary

Contemporary botany has witnessed an upheaval in its understanding of the electrophysiology, cell biology and signalling systems of plants. An insurgent school of botanists have coined the phrase plant neurobiology to describe a new field that is “aimed at understanding how plants perceive their circumstances and respond to environmental input in an integrated fashion.” Neurobiologists credit plants not only with powers of perception but also intelligence, learning and memory. Although controversial and disputed within botany, neurobiologists have inspired some moral philosophers to argue for a revised view of the moral status of plants. By questioning the chasm of moral inferiority that has long been thought to separate plants from animals, philosophers inspired by plant neurobiology are predictably viewed as providing a justification for meat-eating. Plant neurobiology is effective in showing that the traditional image of plants as “inert, vacant, raw materials” is outdated. But challenging protectionism’s ban on eating animals requires showing that plants possess equal moral status to animals. It also needs to be shown that in a world of sentient plants, the diet that would harm the fewest sentient beings is some form of omnivorism. The plant thinking view fails to establish either claim.