Should I feel guilty when I pick a rose from its mother, or when I bite into an apple with my teeth? Should I consider the feelings of trees when I pick their fruits?
Some meat-eating lovers say, in their response to vegetarians when they protest the slaughter of animals and talk about their pain when they are slaughtered, that trees also suffer when we harvest their fruits.
In fact, the idea of ​​plant pain was not only raised by vegetarians, but it was raised a lot before that. Some put it out of the love of knowledge and others out of the door that the plant is a living being, so why does it not suffer as humans and animals suffer?
The plant consists of several parts, so the tree is a root, a stem, leaves, and a fruit, so does the tree suffer, for example, when we cut it down, and do the fruits suffer when we pluck them from the tree?
Sensation without pain
According to the PETA website, “at the moment no one is sure whether or not plants can feel pain, but we do know that plants can feel sensations.”
The report of the site, which was translated by “Arabi 21”, said, “Studies indicate that plants can feel a light touch, such as the movement or the rolling of the wheels of building mechanisms, but pain, specifically, is a defense mechanism, and if something harms humans, we interact with it.” Instinctively, they either fight or flee, as animals do, but plants don’t know how to react.”
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And the site added: “But plants do not have this ability – and they do not have nervous systems or brains – so they may not have a biological need to feel pain, however, it is possible that plants have intelligence and a sense that we cannot discover yet.”
The website did not clarify or mention one of the studies it referred to in its report.
perception of harm
For her part, Melissa Petrosello, plant science editor at Britannica, said, “Given that plants do not have pain receptors, nerves, or a brain, they do not feel pain as we humans understand it, and therefore uprooting a carrot or pruning some bushes is not a formality.” It’s a form of vegetarian torture, so you can bite into that apple without worrying.”
“However, it seems that many plants can perceive and communicate physical stimuli and the damage they inflict in ways that are more complex than previously thought, as some plants have clear sensory capabilities, for example the” Venus” plant, she added. Also called flytrap, it can close its leaves on an approaching insect in about half a second.
And she cited another example, which is the “sensitive plant,” as its leaves quickly collapse in response to touch, and this collapse is an adaptation that may work to keep potential herbivores away, while these plants clearly show a clear sensory ability, recent research has shown that other plants are able to perceive and respond to stimuli Mechanism at the cellular level – it is the basic level of organization, the cell is the basic unit of life and the smallest unit capable of reproducing itself-“.
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“Also, Arabidopsis (the mustard plant commonly used in scientific studies) sends electrical signals from one leaf to another when caterpillars or aphids eat it, signals to intensify its chemical defenses against herbivores,” she added.
“While this remarkable response is triggered by physical damage, the electrical warning signal is not equivalent to the pain signal, and we should not personify an injured plant as a plant in pain,” she explained.
She concludes, “Plants have extraordinary abilities to respond to sunlight, gravity, wind and even small insect bites, but fortunately their evolutionary successes and failures were not shaped by suffering.”
Tension not pain
In contrast, researchers at Lund University have found genetic switches that explain how plants respond strongly to mechanical stimuli.
According to an article published by the university about the study, “When you water your garden plants, they interact directly at the level of biochemistry, and when you cut, for example, with a knife, the stem of a rhubarb plant, thousands of genes are activated, and stress hormones are released.”
And the researchers continued in their article, which was translated by “Arabic 21”: “Unlike humans, plants cannot feel pain, but they still react strongly to mechanical stimuli from human touch, herbivores, wind and rain. For example, these external factors activate the system. The molecular defense of the plant quickly, which in turn can contribute to the plants becoming more resilient and thriving again later.”
Plant aspirin
As for the scientific “ScienceDaily” website, it said in an article about a study about the plant, that “plants may not feel pain as a result of injury as animals feel, but they have a reaction (alarm) of their own towards tissue damage, and in an effect similar to what happens in animals, and can This interaction should be curtailed by aspirin and other medications.”
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The site indicated in its article, which was translated by “Arabic 21”, that “plant biologist Zhiqiang Pan from Arizona State University, and his fellow French researcher Bilal Camara, have discovered that aspirin inhibits the production of a major compound produced by plants in response to physical injury in the same way that it inhibits the compound that it produces.” tissues in animals when they are injured.
And the site continued: “The function of aspirin in animals is to prevent the production of prostaglandins that cause swelling and pain, and aspirin binds to the active site of the enzyme necessary for the production of prostaglandins, while in plants, aspirin prevents the production of jasmine-jasmonic acid.”
The article explained, quoting the study, that “jasmine acid is a hormone that is produced when plants are in trouble and harm, and signals the production of plant defense compounds – and it works a little like a pain potion, warning the plant that it is under attack.”
In the end, the question of whether a plant suffers or not remains a controversial question. For example, a person can express and say that he is in pain, and then we know that he was subjected to painful harm, but the plant cannot express itself, and certainly God has put in it capabilities that protect it from harm that we still do not know. We may never know it.