Of course I agree all life should be treated with respect Alameda.  If you truly believe plants to be sentient, then I assume you do not prune or weed your garden?

Let´s put things in perspective eh?  Watch the video of the link I posted above, and then tell me if plants suffer in this way?!

 I dont find it depressing -  it is the natural way of life.  However, if we want to eat meat, we should ensure that animals are treated with respect and live as natural life as possible while they are alive.  In the wild, animals live in a natural environment and are killed and kill.  We farm insensively, keeping animals in cramped and horrible conditions and give them severe stress before they die.

 Of course, it´s a matter of how things are done. Is it with compassion and respect, or wanton, mindless, careless consumption?  

When you note how difficult it is for us here on TLC to communicate, it´s no wonder communication with other forms of life are misunderstood.

It was not long ago that Blacks in the US were not even considered human, thus they could be enslaved.  

As for the video link, did you look at the Propostition 2  recently passed in CA?

Anyway...it´s something to think about. Since I read The Secret Life of Plants, my consumption habits have changed.

Working in botany, I have yet to find anyone in the field who agrees with the all the findings in "The Secret Life of Plants", and the evidence and the manner in which it was collected, is very unscientific.

It was a very popular book, but most eminent botanists describe it is psuedo-science.

As Dr. David Hershey said:-

I was not aware there was a video but the experiment you describe is
detailed in the #1 bestselling book of that title by Peter Tompkins and
Christopher Bird. It also contains a lot of other botanical pseudoscience
as does its less successful sequel, Secrets of the Soil. The supposed
beneficial effect of some types of music on plant growth even inspired
Stevie Wonder to release an album of music to grow plants by! Art Galston
wrote a rebuttal to the Secret Life of Plants book titled "The
unscientific method" (1974. Natural History 83(3):18,21,24).

Most of that type of botanical pseudoscientific research was later tried
by actual plant scientists, who could not confirm the results. I do not
believe a lot of it was published because it represented negative results
that would not look too good on the resume of a legitimate scientist. A
1990 Cell article 60:357-364 reported no effect of music on mRNA changes
that could be induced by touching the plant, Arabidopsis.

Pseudoscience is a good topic to add interest to botany classes. A
close-to-pseudoscience theory is hydrotropism, which most college
textbooks say does not exist but precollege biology books say is valid.
See Hershey, D.R. 1992. Is hydrotropism all wet? Science Activities
29(2):20-24.

 I agree 100%! That´s why I voted yes on Proposition 2. Although I eat meat on ocassion, I only purchase that which has been farmed in a humane manner....and when I grow my veggies....I treat them very nice  and try to protect them from predators.

 Why do you keep repeating your links?  Are you trying to hypnotise me?  Perhaps you think I dont read them?

I am very pleased to see that Proposition 2 has received such a huge vote.  It is wonderful news.  I see nothing about animal transportation there, but hopefully you have legislation about the maximum time that animals can be transported?

 are you getting sleepy........

I repeat them not for you, but for any who may enter late.

I have two cats to whom I try to feed raw meat with some regularity. It´s interesting to notice the difference in their activity when they are fed raw meat. They seem to get more "animal" after eating it.

 Now where is your sense of humour?  Anyway, I was replying to Bod not you and he is not insulted

 Oh dear Bod, what have I / we started

Here we go again with that innocent "ouh look how everyone jumps on the slightest thing" act.

Of course you had no need to apologise to Bod, as you were (rather excessively) laughing about his joke regarding vegetarians.  I would not normally bother to reply, had it not been for your remarks about learning "respect".

 Am waiting for clarification from Catwoman as to whether using a smiley which says "you are crazy" is the same as saying "you are paranoid" as both imply mental illness.

I find this post very rude actually (even without the smiley).