lol, what a weird question. If gravity were reversed would that change things? I think it might. What if instead of eyes we had golf-balls? Oh man that would be crazy.

Plants don't have brains. Anything close to "feelings" they might have are just biomechanical reactions in no way comparable to the sophisticated, complex phenomena that occur in sentient beings.

Yes, if we find out that plants can feel pain as much as animals do, I'd feel less bad about eating meat, because this would mean that it can't be helped, we will always cause pain to something in order to live. It would also change the way I see vegetarians and vegans.

I guess that if plants do feel, the most moral choice would be to only eat products which wouldn't kill either animals or plants. Dairy products, fruits and so on...

It would change some people's lifestyles dramatically. Others it wouldn't change at all. It would certainly change the lives of a lot of vegetarians. It could even make some vegetarians not be vegetarians anymore...they might give up on their ideals entirely if they prevented their survival. I don't know, maybe I'm wrong about that. People who do believe that animals have feelings and who eat them anyway and don't really care, however, would really not care about eating plants either.

I work on the assumption that plants feel. In fact, this is provable simply by observation: sunflowers turn towards the sun, venus fly traps respond to touch. I saw studies a number of years ago suggesting that some species of plant put out antibodies when nearby but unconnected plants of the same species fall ill.

I cannot make a judgement of cognisance in plants, all I can say is that they respond to stimuli. They have defense mechanisms in place for things that might kill them. They react when something harms them.

I make no judgement of cognisance in animals. They respond to stimuli, they have defence mechanisms, they react to harm.

If plants did not show this aversion to being hurt, I'd probably be answering this question a different way. In fact, I'd probably be a vegetarian, simply for the ethical standpoint. However, I can find no basis to distinguish between plants or animals in this regard.

Thus, as I am neither a proponent of Breatharianism nor Inedia, I prefer to display my lack of bias by eating both plants and animals.

There IS a group of people who use the argument that plants HAVE feelings and CAN feel pain based on a scientific study. However this study has not been accepted by anybody who has brains. The reason for this is that they're probably adjusting the term 'pain' to any sort of reaction to damage. Plants are purely bio-chemical reactions without any form of conciousness.

BUT if there was good, thorough scientific research to prove me wrong, then it would make a lot of difference

a - for vegetarians who wouldn't want to harm plants

b - for those who argue that vegetarians aren't on the moral high horse.

Yeah. For once, maybe it'd open some people's eyes to what we really are so they'd stop bitching about me eating a steak.

yes it does matter if plants have feelings because they r living thing

If animals have feelings, will that change a lot? If we can travel all the way to Pluto, will that change everything? Just get with the program here. Even hippees will feel more sad when they die.

there was a research in michigan state university saying that plants have a primitive nerve structure, so they can feel pain.

I am a plant so I know all about it. Check my profile if you don't believe me: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001134105011#!/profile.php?id=100001134105011&v;=wall

Plants do have feelings, so, it does matter to me. I do not like pruning plants because of those feelings.