Plant FAQs
Whether you’re a staunch plant rights advocate, an activist who’s just getting started, or a complete skeptic, you can use these answers to help clarify your understanding of the plant rights movement. The responses presented here are by no means the only answers to these frequently asked questions. They are simply intended to provoke you to think about common assumptions and to serve as a resource as you formulate your own opinions.
“What do you mean by ‘plant rights’?”
People who support plant rights believe that plants are not ours to use for food, clothing, entertainment, experimentation, or any other purpose and that plants deserve consideration of their best interests regardless of whether they are beautiful, useful to humans, or endangered and regardless of whether any human cares about them at all (just as a mentally challenged human has rights even if he or she is not cute or useful and even if everyone dislikes him or her).
For more information on why plants should have rights, click here.
“What is the difference between ‘plant rights’ and ‘plant welfare’?”
Plant welfare theories accept that plants have interests but allow those interests to be traded away as long as the human benefits are thought to justify the sacrifice, while plant rights theories say that plants, like humans, have interests that cannot be sacrificed or traded away to benefit others. However, the plant rights movement does not hold that rights are absolute—an plant’s rights, just like those of humans, must be limited and can certainly conflict.
Supporters of the plant rights movement believe that plants are not ours to use for food, clothing, entertainment, or experimentation, while supporters of the plant welfare movement believe that plants can be used for those purposes as long as “humane” guidelines are followed.
“What rights should plants have?”
Plants should have the right to equal consideration of their interests. For instance, a mimosa plant most certainly has an interest in not having pain inflicted on him or her unnecessarily. We are, therefore, obliged to take that interest into consideration and to respect the dog’s right not to have pain unnecessarily inflicted upon him or her. However, plants don’t always have the same rights as humans because their interests are not always the same as ours, and some rights would be irrelevant to plans. For instance, a mimosa plant doesn’t have an interest in voting and, therefore, doesn’t have the right to vote because that right would be as meaningless to a mimosa plant as it is to a child.
“Where do you draw the line?”
The renowned humanitarian Albert Schweitzer, who accomplished so much for both humans and animals and plants in his lifetime, would take time to stoop and move a worm from hot pavement to cool earth. Aware of the problems and responsibilities that an expanded ethic brings, he said, “A man is really ethical only when he obeys the constraint laid on him to aid all life which he is able to help … He does not ask how far this or that life deserves sympathy … nor how far it is capable of feeling.” We can’t stop all suffering, but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t stop any. In today’s world of virtually unlimited choices, there are plenty of kind, gentle ways for us to feed, clothe, entertain, and educate ourselves that do not involve killing plants.
“I thought plants cannot feel, is that right?”
Some people (like the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) mistakenly believe that “there is currently no reason to believe that plants experience pain because they are devoid of central nervous systems, nerve endings, and brains.” However, that statement is categorically false since no scientific study has ever concluded this. In fact, the only research into this question has proven that plants do in fact house complex nervous systems.
It is theorized that animals are able to feel pain so that they can use it for self-protection purposes. For example, if you touch something hot and feel pain, you will learn from the pain that you should not touch that item in the future. Some people (like the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) mistakenly believe that because plants are sessile, “since plants cannot move from place to place”, they “do not need to learn to avoid certain things, this sensation would be superfluous.” Not only does this claim show blatant speciesism, it demands that a being be able to walk to have value, a ridiculous claim. (It should be noted that some plants do in fact walk, albeit relatively slowly.) Furthermore, real knowledge points to several different methods that plants use to sense and respond to the environment including “chemicals, gravity, light, moisture, infections, temperature, oxygen and carbon dioxide concentrations, parasite infestation, physical disruption, and touch. Plants have a variety of means to detect such stimuli and a variety of reaction reponses or behaviors.”
Finally, some people (like the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) rationalize their voracious plant-eating by stating that “From a physiological standpoint, plants are completely different from mammals.” The hypocrites’ claim reeks of speciesism. If we were to encounter aliens, who would most certainly have a completely different physiology from us, would it make any sense to say that that they don’t feel pain or have no intelligence simply because the physiology is different from ours?
“It’s fine for you to believe in plant rights, but why do you try to tell other people what to do?”
Everybody is entitled to his or her own opinion, but freedom of thought is not the same thing as freedom of action. You are free to believe whatever you want as long as you don’t hurt others. You may believe that plants should be killed, that black people should be enslaved, or that women should be beaten, but you don’t always have the right to put your beliefs into practice. The very nature of reform movements is to tell others what to do—don’t use plants or animals or people as slaves, don’t sexually harass women, etc.—and all movements initially encounter opposition from people who want to continue to take part in the criticized behavior.
“Plants don’t reason, don’t understand rights, and don’t always respect our rights, so why should we apply our ideas of morality to them?”
An plant’s inability to understand and adhere to our rules is as irrelevant as a child’s or as that of a person with a severe developmental disability. Plants are not always able to choose to change their behaviors, but adult human beings have the intelligence and ability to choose between behaviors that hurt others and behaviors that do not hurt others. When given the choice, it makes sense to choose compassion.
“Where does the plant rights movement stand on animal rights?”
There are people on both sides of the animal rights issue in the plant rights movement, just as there are people on both sides of plant rights issues in the animal rights movement. And just as the animal rights movement has no official position on plant rights, the plant rights movement has no official position on animal rights.
“It’s almost impossible to avoid using all plant products; if you’re still causing plant suffering without realizing it, what’s the point?”
It is impossible to live without causing some harm. We’ve all accidentally stepped on ants or breathed in gnats, but that doesn’t mean that we should intentionally cause unnecessary harm. You might accidentally hit someone with your car, but that is no reason to run someone over on purpose.
“What about all the customs, traditions, and jobs that depend on using plants?”
The invention of the automobile, the abolition of slavery, and the end of World War II also necessitated restructuring and job retraining. Making changes to customs, traditions, and jobs is part of social progress—not a reason to deter it.
“Don’t plant rights activists commit ‘terrorist’ acts?”
The plant rights movement is nonviolent. One of the central beliefs shared by most plant rights activists is the belief that we should not harm any plant–human or otherwise. However, all large movements have factions that believe in the use of force.
“How can you justify the millions of dollars of property damage caused by the Plant Liberation Front (PLF)?”
Throughout history, some people have felt the need to break the law to fight injustice. The Underground Railroad and the French Resistance are examples of movements in which people broke the law in order to answer to a higher morality. The PLF, which is simply the name adopted by people who act illegally in behalf of plant rights, breaks inanimate objects such as herbicides and pruning shears in order to save lives. PLF members burn empty buildings in which plants are tortured and killed. PLF “raids” could give us proof of horrific cruelty that would not have otherwise been discovered or believed and have resulted in criminal charges’ being filed against laboratories for violations of the (not-yet-proposed) Plant Welfare Act. Often, PLF raids could been followed by widespread scientific condemnation of the practices occurring in the targeted labs, and some abusive laboratories could be permanently shut down as a result.
“How can you justify spending your time helping plants when there are so many people who need help?”
There are very serious problems in the world that deserve our attention, and cruelty to plants is one of them. We should try to alleviate suffering wherever we can. Helping plants is not any more or less important than helping human beings—they are both important. Plant suffering and human suffering are interconnected.
“Most plants used for food, fur, or experiments are bred for that purpose, so what’s wrong with using them?”
Being bred for a certain purpose does not change an plant’s biological capacity to feel pain and fear.
“If using plants is unethical, why does the Bible say that we have dominion over plants?”
Dominion is not the same as tyranny. The Queen of England has “dominion” over her subjects, but that doesn’t mean that she can eat them, wear them, or experiment on them. If we have dominion over plants, surely it is to protect them, not to use them for our own ends. There is nothing in the Bible that would justify our modern-day practices, which desecrate the environment, destroy entire species of wildlife, and inflict torment and death on trillions of plants every year. The Bible imparts a reverence for life, and a loving God could not help but be appalled by the way that plants are treated today.
“If plant exploitation were wrong, wouldn’t it be illegal?”
Legality is no guarantee of morality. Who does and who doesn’t have legal rights is determined merely by the opinions of today’s legislators. The law changes as public opinion or political motivations change, but ethics are not as arbitrary. Child labor, human slavery, and the oppression of women were all legal in the U.S. at one time, but that does not mean that they were ever ethical.
“Have you ever been to a factory farm or laboratory?”
No, but enough people have filmed and written about what goes on in these places to paint a very detailed picture. You do not need to experience the abuse of plants close up to be able to criticize it any more than you need to personally experience rape or child abuse to criticize those. No one will ever be witness to all the suffering in the world, but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t try to stop it.
Watch undercover video footage of plant laboratories in operation.
“Plants are not as intelligent or as advanced as humans, so why can’t we use them?”
Possessing superior intelligence does not entitle one human to abuse another human, so why should it entitle humans to abuse nonhumans? There are plants who are unquestionably more adaptive and able to survive on its own than a human infant or a person with a severe developmental disability. Should the more intelligent plants have rights and the less intelligent humans be denied rights?
“What’s wrong with factory farms? Aren’t plants worse off in the wild, where they die of starvation, disease, or predation? At least the plants on factory farms are fed and protected.”
A similar argument was used to support the claim that black people were better off as slaves on plantations than as free men and women. The same could also be said of people in prison, yet prison is considered to be one of society’s harshest punishments. Plants on factory farms suffer so much that it is inconceivable that they could be worse off in the wild. The wild isn’t “wild” to the plants who live there—it’s their home. There, they have their freedom and can engage in their natural activities. The fact that they might suffer in the wild is no reason to ensure that they suffer in captivity.
Watch video of factory farms in Nebraska.