Learning more

Respecting plants involves seeing them as valuable beings on their own terms, and not just as sources of raw materials for human use. It means that plants deserve moral consideration in all of the ways in which people interact with them.

Actually, this is not a new idea at all! In many cultures, past and present, plants are treated with honor and respect. 

These terms have different nuances, but one commonality is that plants are treated more respectfully in each of these approaches.

See the December 2023 report from The Plant Initiative Toward a Plant Advocacy Movement  which presents reasons why a plant advocacy movement is timely, outlines challenges that such a movement would face, considers what can be learned from the animal advocacy movement, and suggests potential approaches that could be useful for operationalizing a plant advocacy movement.  Access it free here.

• There are many books, articles, videos, and audio recordings that provide valuable background on plant ethics and plant intelligence.

A good starting point is a 50-minute radio show "Plants as Persons" from To the Best of Our Knowledge that aired December 19, 2020 and includes interviews with Robin Wall Kimmerer, Matthew Hall, Monica Gagliano, and Brooke Hecht. 

Here is a range of recommended resources:

Paco Calvo and Natalie Lawrence, Planta Sapiens: The New Science of Plant Intelligence (New York, NY: W.W. Norton, 2023)

• This book provides a good overview and summary of recent scientific research on plant capacities and intelligence.

Daniel Chamovitz, What a Plant Knows: A Field Guide to the Senses (Updated and Expanded Edition) (New York, NY: Scientific American / Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2017)

• Provides a clearly-presented and scientifically-based overview of the capacity of plants for a range of senses, including sight, smell, touch, taste, and hearing.

Federal Ethics Committee on Non-Human Biotechnology (ECNH), The Dignity of Living Beings with Regard to Plants: Moral Consideration of Plants for Their Own Sake. (2008) 

• This important plant ethics document was produced under direction of the Swiss government to explore issues related to moral consideration of plants in experimentation and otherwise.

Monica Gagliano, Thus Spoke the Plant (Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books, 2018)

• An Australian plant scientist describes her research on plant sentience and plant intelligence as well as her personal experiences of communication with trees in the Amazon under the guidance of a shaman.

David Haberman, People Trees: Worship of Trees in Northern India (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2013)

• Describes tree worship in India and the importance and nature of sacred trees in that country.

Matthew Hall, Plants as Persons: A Philosophical Botany (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2011)

• Provides an excellent introduction to the concept of plant personhood including how various cultural traditions view plants as well as argues for more respectful treatment of plants.

Angela Kallhoff, Marcello Di Paola, and Maria Schörgenhumer (editors), Plant Ethics: Concepts and Applications (New York, NY: Routledge, 2019)

• This important edited collection includes a number of essays from scholars considering issues related to plant ethics.

Robin Wall Kimmerer Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants (Minneapolis, MN: Milkweed Editions, 2013)

• This book by a Potawatomi botanist illustrates the deep connection between her Indigenous culture and plants.

Florianne Koechlin, Tomatoes talk, birch trees learn – do plants have dignity?, TEDxZurich video. (January 2016) 

• This video argues for the dignity of plants.

Stefano Mancuso and Alessandra Viola, Brilliant Green: The Surprising History and Science of Plant Intelligence (Washington, DC: Island Press, 2015).

• Provides a good summary of the various capabilities of plants in easy-to-read yet scientific terms. 

Michael Marder, Plant-Thinking: A Philosophy of Vegetal Life (New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 2013)

• Provides an important conceptual framework for considering ethical treatment of plants.

Natasha Myers, How to grow liveable worlds: Ten (not-so-easy) steps for life in the Planthroposcene, (2020) 

• Inspiring suggestions for how to collaborate with and learn from plants.

Michael Pollan, The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World (New York, NY: Random House, 2002)

• Offers insight into how plants and humans have coevolved to serve each other’s needs, with recognition of plants as active agents in this process.

Zoë Schlanger, The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth (New York, NY: HarperCollins, 2024)

• Provides an interesting overview on the topic of plant intelligence and challenges readers to think of plants in a different way

Suzanne Simard, Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest (New York, NY: Vintage, 2022)

• Discusses how trees and forests are complex, social, and cooperative beings that are far more than sources of wood and pulp

Christopher D. Stone, Should Trees Have Standing: Law, Morality and the Environment (Third Edition) (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2010)

• This analysis by a legal scholar argues that trees and other nonhuman beings should be given legal rights and helped to launch the Rights of Nature movement.

Paul Taylor, Respect for Nature (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2011 (first printed 1986))

• A philosopher discusses legal rights as applied to plants and animals.

Anthony Trewavas, Plant Behaviour and Intelligence (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2014)

• A comprehensive scientific discussion of the complexity of plant behavior, including plant intelligence.

James Wandersee and Elisabeth Schussler, “Toward a Theory of Plant Blindness” Plant Science Bulletin, 27(1), (2001) - Pages 2 - 9.

• This article describes the important concept of “plant blindness” while also explaining the importance of plants for humans.

Peter Wohlleben, The Hidden Life of Trees (Vancouver, BC: Greystone Books, 2016)

• A German forester calls for more humane treatment of trees in forestry practices in the light of their advanced capabilities.