[goldenkey]

Plants literally produce nicotine, caffeine, mescaline, and other chemical insecticides to thwart off predation... Lidocaine literally works on plants because all living organisms have electrical gradients and ion channels regardless of whether or not a nervous system exists.

Plants have a consciousness, it's just not the same as yours or mine. We shouldn't be eating animals or plants, we should be eating pollen, wax, and nectar - seeds and fruit. This would be true permaculture without any reaping or sowing of any life.

I literally own a startup dedicated to this futuristic goal. You can email me if you are interested in Roylent.

The least we can do at the current moment is to not torture animals for food. That can be agreed on regardless of one's views and understandings about information, computation, and consciousness.

[pphysch]

What about bacteria and bugs?

[goldenkey]

What about them?

[pphysch]

Does your flavor of permaculture actively preserve their lives?

[goldenkey]

Yes

[pphysch]

How so? How do you avoid crushing them?

[goldenkey]

Drones.