Plant Sentience Changes Everything

I have always had a love and fascination for plants. I began growing them as a young boy at the start of grade school. I spent my childhood in the forest, learning the names of the plants and animals and understanding how they functioned as an ecosystem.

I was destined to be a farmer because growing plants is fundamental to our work. Now, in my 70s, I continue to farm because my passion for growing plants and raising animals remains strong, and I will never quit.

Two events profoundly influenced my approach to agriculture. In 1973, Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird published ” The Secret Life of Plants,” which confirmed what I had known as a child: plants are sentient beings that communicate.

The second event occurred when I attempted to develop a diet that did not involve killing any sentient beings. I was a vegetarian following Ahimsa, the path of non-violence. I worked out which plants I could grow without harming anything to produce food. I began preparing the seedbed to plant these crops when I realized I was killing weeds. Weeds are sentient beings and play essential roles in regenerating ecosystems.

I had to rethink everything I believed at that time. I came to understand that I could not live without sentient beings dying to provide my food. I had a right to live, so I resolved to change my lifestyle to minimize the death and injury of sentient beings while maximizing their well-being. It was at that point that I gave up being a vegetarian, as plants are sentient like animals and should be regarded as equals, not as inferior forms of life. My farming became based on perennial systems of plants and animals to minimize disturbance and maximize diversity, complexity, harmony, and resilience.

The Secret Life of Plants sparked significant debate. It highlighted various experiments demonstrating plant sentience and showed that plants interact with a range of living entities, including humans.

Scientists heavily criticized it, stating that it promoted pseudoscientific claims. Fast-forward 50 years, and a vast body of scientific evidence shows that ” The Secret Life of Plants ” was correct.