Hey Vegans! It Turns Out Plants Have Brains! What’s For Dinner Now?

For all those vegans out there that say they’d never eat an animal because it is cruel to eat another living creature that is capable of things like thought, it might be time to look into whether or not you can live on an all sand diet. Researchers from the University of Birmingham have just published a new paper revealing research that has determined plants are capable of basic thought. Furthermore, they’ve even identified a cluster of cells in plants that acts like a rudimentary brain and decides when the plant should germinated.

On one side, this could mean amazing things as far as what we can do to increase crop yields, on the other hand, can you really eat a salad after knowing that it may have been capable of thought?

Here’s how the “brain” in the plants works:

The group of cells is made up of two competing types: one promotes germination and the other promotes dormancy. The scientists describe the relationship as a “tug of war” match, as hormones are swapped back and forth in a process that’s very similar to mechanisms in the human brain when someone decides whether or not to move.

George Bassel, lead author of the study, had this to say:

“Our work has important implications for understanding how crops and weeds grow. There is now potential to apply this knowledge to commercial plants in order to enhance and synchronize germination, increasing crop yields and decreasing herbicide use.”

Source: Inhabitat