The Silent Scream of Asparagus

[Grumpy Cat]

Get ready for 'plant rights.'

You just knew it was coming: At the request of the Swiss government, an ethics panel has weighed in on the "dignity" of plants and opined that the arbitrary killing of flora is morally wrong. This is no hoax. The concept of what could be called "plant rights" is being seriously debated.

Read more here

[Raskolnikov]

Well, I did name myself a tree.

[Beorn]

What's wrong with this? Roald Dahl and many Englishman are way ahead of you degenerates.

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[Piparskeggr]

Friend of mine in high school won a Westinghouse scholarship by showing that plants do have galvanic responses to certain stimuli...

My thoughts?

Something must die for me to live; plant or animal. Better them than me.

[Psychonaut]

Something must die for me to live; plant or animal. Better them than me.

Aye, even as something of a hylozoist who believes that all things participate in experience, that descriptive acknowledgement of the ubiquity of prehension doesn't translate into a normative prohibition on the extinguishing of other subjects so that I might thrive. The one group I know of that tries to seriously live the "harm none" ethos, the Jains, are effectively crippled because of it—with some of the nuttier Jaina mystics claiming to live on sunlight alone.

[Loki]

I don't agree with the line this article is taking. It even comes out attacking animal rights:

The animal rights movement grew out of the same poisonous soil. Animal rights ideology holds that moral worth comes with sentience or the ability to suffer.

Are they suggesting that animals cannot suffer or feel pain? In my opinion there is nothing wrong with animal rights, and it is a cultured human being who can appreciate that humans are not the only species who have feelings.

I disagree with the Christian value that degrades animals and plants to be just some lifeless commodities. I also think someone who just goes about destroying plants for the sake of it has issues.

[Eldritch]

I thought of the Roald Dahl short story immediately.

There's a problem, though, and it is that people have to eat something.

[Troll's Puzzle]

it reminds me of the trailblazing Boulder Hill Vegetable Rights Association

You slaughter a tomato by killing it. It is a living thing. If you cut it off its vine it dies. Sure that will happen naturally someday on its own, but the same can be said of human beings, and that does not justify our ending anyone's life a little early.

If you require that a life form have a "mind" before you respect it or acknowledge it, then perhaps you should take a stroll through a forest or a greenhouse and see if you can sense the life forces in the living plants.

They may not be a mind, they may be closer to spirit, but they are there. Their reactions have been measured with scientific instruments. They react to music. They react to people being nice to them, talking to them, stroking them. They react dramatically to injury of a fellow plant. They even repeat this reaction when the injurer returns to the room, but not for others, so they have the ability to recognize an individual and remember events. Not with a mind, perhaps, but with whatever nature gave them. They do have a nervous system.

If you require a mind to be present before killing becomes a moral issue, then there are some people who might be a little nervous being around you.

The Boulder Vegetable Rights Association has held meetings, discussed these issues, disseminated information to the public through boulder.general and has been the subject of an article in the Daily Camera. The BVRA promotes awareness that vegetables are living things, and that killing them is cruel. Past posts available upon request. Join the BVRA ... as we continue to spread our message of tolerance towards flora everywhere.

This Monday, 2/1/95, we will be staging a day long protest march outside Healthy Habits restaurant in Boulder, and Alfalfa's in Boulder, in an attempt to dissuade them and their customers from their floricidal ways. We have massed dozens of plant tolerant protesters, and we are all willing to go to jail (or worse...) in order to stop the wanton destruction and killing that takes place so that overpaid yuppie scum can enjoy salads, and rip the hearts from live artichokes! We are sick of seeing otherwise healthy young vegetables ripped from the ground and steamed alive with a little butter. This type of vegist practice MUST STOP!

Our government does not condone the killing of humans for food, yet we subsidize the killing fields of Kansas and California, paying sick, twisted merchants of death to breed "hybrid" vegetables solely for the purpose of prematurely ending their lives. We are appalled at Dachau, yet in love with Dekalb. We were sickened by Cambodia, yet devour Corn Flakes. We are sickened by dozens of people being burned to death in Waco, but how many of us will, this very day, trap hundreds of unborn corn kernels into a microwave oven and burn them until they explode? We will use force, if necessary, in order to save the lives of pre-born potatoes (the so-called "new potatoes"), infant peas & carrots, and other unborn vegetables that are aborted daily. We make no bones about our dedication to this cause.

[Grumpy Cat]

I don't agree with the line this article is taking. It even comes out attacking animal rights:



Are they suggesting that animals cannot suffer or feel pain? In my opinion there is nothing wrong with animal rights, and it is a cultured human being who can appreciate that humans are not the only species who have feelings.

I disagree with the Christian value that degrades animals and plants to be just some lifeless commodities. I also think someone who just goes about destroying plants for the sake of it has issues.

The problem is when the activists take it beyond logic.

Humans have to eat, simple as that. Not just that, but humans are predators. Vegetarianism is unnatural for our species. We, as a species are an apex predator, simple as that. If we were meant to be vegetarians, our appendix would be larger than it is and we'd have digestive enzymes to break down cellulose and sucralose, which we don't.

[Loki]

The problem is when the activists take it beyond logic.

Humans have to eat, simple as that. Not just that, but humans are predators. Vegetarianism is unnatural for our species. We, as a species are an apex predator, simple as that. If we were meant to be vegetarians, our appendix would be larger than it is and we'd have digestive enzymes to break down cellulose and sucralose, which we don't.

Yes that is the harsh reality of life. Humans weren't really "supposed" to evolve this much, as to have a conscience. But fact is, humans are not really that different from animals.