Moral Implications of a Plant Based Diet
A thought about the moral implications of a plant based diet.
Recent documentaries and even BBC News items have described the concept of the WWW… that is the Wood Wide Web. BBC Article
This describes the way in which fugal filaments (literally a web of..) connect the root systems of trees and plants within a wooded area. Amongst the purposes of this is to share nutrients such that weaker trees gain support from stronger one. They share chemical messages so for example when one tree is under attack it can send messages to those around it telling them to strengthen their defences.
Couple this with their ability to detect the direction of sunlight and indeed the length of the day and strength of light which is very useful if you are deciduous and need to flower to attract pollinators.
Finally you have a reproductive system which is designed to make the best of the environment so that your seeds (children) can be spread out to increase the population.
Link all of the above together and you are talking about self-awareness and a level of intelligence that allows reaction to threat.
I can’t help but wonder if concentrating a specific group of flora (say wheat or an orchard) into a defined area (field) and then killing them all off (harvesting) at once when they have exhausted that season’s food supply (fertiliser) is taking advantage of another species against its will.
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