Shaolin Diet

[Bring4th_Austin]

The simple answer is plants don't show pain

"Pain" being the animal equivalent of a survival mechanism, plants certainly do have their own equivalent survival mechanism which clearly shows they do not wish to be killed. If a plant is damaged in a way that indicates it is being eaten by bugs or something else, it releases pheromones to attract beneficial insects to kill the insect that is eating it. You might most commonly recognize this as the smell of freshly cut grass. This smell is actually the grass crying out for help in the way it knows how.

There are other such signs that plants do not want to die and will actively work to even support other plants in surviving. If one plant in a population of plants is struck with drought conditions, it will actually communicate to the other plants around it (pheromone signalling or possibly even through the root systems somehow) that drought conditions are approaching and the nearby plants will respond accordingly (curling leaves to conserve moisture).

And, of course, the most basic sign that a plant wishes to live rather than be eaten is that it grows towards the sun, not our mouths.

It's easy for us to identify with animals because we are one. We understand the pain an animal feels because we feel it too. We have a nervous system which communicates to us in a way to promote our survival. Just because plants do not have the same awareness or feedback system which our nervous system awards us, doesn't mean that they don't have their own mechanisms in place which promote their own survival. If the pain we relate to is the result of an animal not wanting to be killed, it doesn't take much of a stretch to identify with a plant being "pained" in a different way when its will to live is infringed upon.