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I've seen this "argument" offered up many times, but never see a satisfying conclusion.

The goal is to minimize suffering. What could you possibly do with the information that plants feel pain? Your options are to:

1. Die

2. Decide there are no perfect options and give up on minimizing harm completely

3. Do your best to pick a diet and lifestyle which minimizes harm with actionable heuristics

What exactly do you suggest?




> What could you possibly do with the information that plants feel pain?

Keep the goalpost planted at "suffering" which requires consciousness. So we're still at #3. The analogy of the plant is just to reflect that there's sloppy conjecture used to project the capacity for suffering onto certain animals that by all the counts should not (where suffering entails a conscious awareness of pain and despair).




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