Does sentience require a CNS? If yes, sponges and jellyfish don’t suffer? If no, damaged plants release chemical distress signals. They alter behavior (growth patterns, resource allocation) to avoid damage. They prime defensive responses after initial exposure, functionally similar to sensitization. Root tips show oscillatory electrical activity that some researchers compare to neural activity. So plants have no neurons but do have sophisticated signaling. Yet you think they don’t suffer? Given that we don't understand consciousness, how can you be certain enough about plant insentience to justify killing them without moral concern?

Why is sentience important? Is it okay to piss on a person's grave just because they aren't sentient anymore? If someone drowns in front of you, is it suddenly okay to kick over a person's sand castle just becauee theu aren't sentient anymore? If you numb someone's arm so that they can no longer feel pleasure or pain in that arm, is it okay to cut it off with a hacksaw? If something bad happens to a forest, but the forest isn't sentient, isn't it still bad? Isn't morality supposed to be about reality? Do you actually respect the things that sentient beings care about? Or is morality just a meaningless checklist of creatures whose perspectives you can safely ignore just because you aren't causing them any physical pleasure or pain?

I mean okay, and what if plant's ARE conscious? How does that prove it's okay to eat meat? It just seems like all that argument does is make it immoral to eat plants too.