At what point does the ethical gourmand’s conscience eschew even vegetables? The question of the “sentience” of plant matter has been tossed around for ages, most notably by 1979’s The Secret Life of Plants (and, to a lesser extent, Maynard James Keenan’s rock album rant concerning “the cries of the carrots”).
But as far off the sane path as the assertion seems, new research hints at a form of conscious life for plants—of stored memories and earnest communication. That’s the case, at least, for the simple pea. —MN
