Ethical Eating: The Complexity of Plants New York Times

Growing up an ethical vegetarian/vegan, I can't tell you how many times other kids tried to provoke me by noting that I was still killing vegetables for my food. It turns out this topic isn't confined to the schoolyard. A recent New York Times science article, "Sorry, Vegans: Brussels Sprouts Like to Live, Too," explores the idea that animals aren't the only living things that aspire to live. What does this mean, if anything, for those of us who aspire to make ethical eating choices?

Author Natalie Angier writes:

The more that scientists learn about the complexity of plants — their keen sensitivity to the environment, the speed with which they react to changes in the environment, and the extraordinary number of tricks that plants will rally to fight off attackers and solicit help from afar — the more impressed researchers become, and the less easily we can dismiss plants as so much fiberfill backdrop, passive sunlight collectors on which deer, antelope and vegans can conveniently graze. It’s time for a green revolution, a reseeding of our stubborn animal minds.

As silly as it may sound, I have occasionally felt pangs of concern about the (possible) suffering of plants I eat. Certainly I wouldn't stop eating vegetables, but it does fuel an even deeper gratitude for my food, and at the same time dissolves any judgments I might have toward meat eaters. And that, I believe, is the message of the article. In a time when "debates over food choices have flared with particular vehemence," morality is far more complex than we may realize.

Have you read the article (and the nearly 800 comments it has inspired)? What do you think?

• Read the article: Sorry, Vegans: Brussels Sprouts Like to Live, Too

(Image: Flickr member abolotnov licensed under Creative Commons)

Comments (12)

No, I haven't read it and don't plan to, but what on earth (literally, and pun intended) did it suggest one eats in that case? This is beyond silly.

Maybe it just recommends not fooling yourself about what lives and dies. I'm not sure that's "beyond silly."

Then you (well not you, but the collective 'you') will die, because you couldn't eat ANYTHING. Even air and water have bacteria and such in them, that's what I meant, not that one could live long or at ALL with just that. Do some plants 'feel' less than others? Who decides that, then? Living things, plants included, eat in order to live, ALL living things, in one form or another.

A diet based on animal ethics is not the same thing as transferring those very ethics to the plant kingdom. That's not what vegetarianism and vegans believe in. If you do have problems with killing plants, then become a fruitatarian or Jainist.

I am a recent convert to vegetarianism for a combination of ethical, environmental, and health reasons... And while that NYT article did give me an even deeper appreciation for plants (as did "Botany of Desire"), it didn't deter me for munching on carrots as I read it. Fascinating concept nonetheless!

@Peggasus, I think you're attributing a mindset to my statement that isn't actually there.

Or, in other words: exactly. All living things eat other living things in order to continue living. Did you think I was saying something else?

Wasn't there a Simpsons episode in which a character described himself as a "Level 5 Vegan -- I don't eat anything that casts a shadow"?

We have to eat something. I eat meat and veggies. On the other hand, I think that a deeper appreciation of the fact that we're eating living things can lead to more humane treatment of animals while they're alive, as well as (hopefully) less wasting of food.

Even bacteria are far more complex than many people think (I am doing research on photosynthetic bacteria, the progenitors of all plants). For example, they have special "heat shock proteins" with which they try to fold back their denaturing proteins in order to survive.
I personally think it is not wrong to kill and eat animals or plants - this is nature. I think it is wrong how some animals have to live until they must die - in small cages where they cannot turn, walk or see sunlight - and that we often only eat or use only parts of the animals and throw others away instead of using as much as possible.

It is always so funny to me when people freak out and say "WELL WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO EAT?!?" before they even read the article. No one suggests not eating anything, for pete sake!

I, for one, pocket mulch (also a reference to that Simpsons Camie83)!!!

Also..

"Author Natalie Angier, herself a vegetarian, writes: "

In the first paragraph she says she eats fish and chicken. She's not a vegetarian at all!

@supapfunk Whoops! You're right!

The year I became a strict vegetarian, my mother planned to host Thanksgiving. I reminded her of my dietary choices and she screached, "well are you going to AT LEAST sit at the table with us!?!?" I guess she believed I'd become a person who eats nothing at all! So funny are some omnivores.