Vegan and Plant Life

What to eat then? Killing animal is murder. And the plants have sophisticated system in place, like talking through chemical signals, "Their roots ride the underground “rhizosphere” and engage in cross-cultural and microbial trade."

Here is an interesting extract from Natalie Angier's article in The New York Times, "Just because we humans can’t hear them doesn’t mean plants don’t howl. Some of the compounds that plants generate in response to insect mastication — their feedback, you might say — are volatile chemicals that serve as cries for help. Such airborne alarm calls have been shown to attract both large predatory insects like dragon flies, which delight in caterpillar meat, and tiny parasitic insects, which can infect a caterpillar and destroy it from within."

Plant the trickster, the survivor, "Plants are the ethical autotrophs here, the ones that wrest their meals from the sun. Don’t expect them to boast: they’re too busy fighting to survive."

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/22/science/22angi.html

Comments