Are Plants Cognitive, Intelligent Organisms? A Controversy Brews

In the AppleTV series Foundation, there is a scene where a “mentalist” says that feeling the suffering of the food they are eating/about to eat, makes them more thankful and more careful/thoughtful about the things they consume

I don’t think we are going to stop eating plants anytime soon, but maybe seeing them (as well as animals) as conscious beings, could help us respect nature more and change our relationship with the world we inhabit in a positive way

There's always this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_Life_of_Plants

Packed with references anyone seeking anecdotes should be interested in.

Right after college I almost went to work at a South Carolina DuPont location under a researcher who had a side discovery from carefully studying a number of abandoned pecan groves across the south.

Turns out when there was no longer anyone on the property and no more maintenance, the productivity of the trees dropped considerably.

But with the same lack of maintenance, after less-affluent families had moved into the old plantation homes, the trees resumed abundant production. Just by people being there.

As humans trying to understand the non-human world, analogy and metaphor are the only tools we have to comprehend phenomenon that we otherwise don't have access to. What's wrong with using language in this way?

Plants are smart in more ways than one. Just sensing & adapting to their environment slower than animals or insects.

(and not using a centralized 'brain' to do so)

Well, there goes yet another food source if they are proven inteligent. /s