Do plants react to stress and harmful situations like infestation? Absolutely. Do they actually feel pain as we understand it? Probably not since they lack a nervous system.
Pain is reaction to stimuli. One of those reactions can be suffering, if we assume lobsters and dandelions, who have wildly different biology, experience and perceive reality in the same way humans do. There is no evidence that they do. A belief in something without evidence is called religion.
At this time it is impossible to know if they feel pain. They’re a living creature.
Plants are also living creatures, but don’t tell the Vegans.
They told me Lemmy would be more leftist, why am I still seeing 0 IQ vegan jokes
If you want to minimize plant death, going vegan is still the right move.
Most of the crops we grow go to feeding animals that people eat.
I don’t really care about minimizing plant death. I’m not Vegan or Vegetarian, nor will I be in the future. I just made a joke.
We may be able to tell if they are stressed, which could be related to pain, depending on your viewpoint.
Here is a recent study of audible reactions plant can have to stress: https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(23)00262-3
Do plants react to stress and harmful situations like infestation? Absolutely. Do they actually feel pain as we understand it? Probably not since they lack a nervous system.
This boils down to the question: What is pain?
Pain is reaction to stimuli. One of those reactions can be suffering, if we assume lobsters and dandelions, who have wildly different biology, experience and perceive reality in the same way humans do. There is no evidence that they do. A belief in something without evidence is called religion.