Don't Plants Have Feelings, Too?

All vegetarians/vegans hear the question "Don't plants have feelings, too?" Most of the people asking this question ask as if it's a joke. I hope you want a serious answer, and that you are not trying to belittle my way of life. Well, here is the short answer: Plants do not have pain receptors, nerves, or a central nervous system. If you do not have pain receptors, you do not feel pain. Although those are the facts, that usually doesn't satisfy folks. Why? Because many people that ask that question are really wanting to know how far one must go to become vegan. Where do they have to draw the line? Unfortunately, instead of asking their questions in a constructive way in which we may seriously discuss the need and/or desire to stop eating animals, they phrase the question to make vegans like me seem absurd. And when it's friends and family that do this, it truly hurts. Sure, maybe we will learn something about plants in the near or distant future that we do not know now. But for now, we do know that they lack pain receptors, thus feeling no pain. We do know that humans and animals have pain receptors, nerves, and a central nervous system. Therefore, we know that they feel pain, they can suffer, and they struggle to live when being forced to die. That is the bottom line. All I can do, all any of us can do, is make the best of the information that we have here, that we have right now.

Vegan's Daily Companion