jamestownjames:

Of course plants don't suffer. They don't have a capacity for this.

And by "capacity to suffer" I suppose you mean the central nervous system. Yes, I've read Animal Liberation by the "ethicist" Peter Singer. Murdering creatures is okay if they don't have a central nervous system, right? Can I kill you if I first rip out your spine? Your "suffer" criterion is just a subjectivized word for pain, which is merely a signal sent to the brain to warn of injury or impending doom. The purpose of the signal is obvious: to give the creature information it can use to act against the threat. To suppose plants do not have similar mechanisms is ignorance. Peter Singer's argument can be reduced to a feeble evasion of nihilism.