Plant Empowerment and Awareness Society (PEAS)

A Proposal for the Creation of an Organization for Advocating the Dignity of Plants

Abstract

We propose the creation of an independent, non-government organization for administering, promoting and monitoring of the rights and welfare of plants in the same way that there are organizations with such objectives for humans and animals.

We argue the legal principle adopted by citizens of Switzerland stating that plants have dignity outlined by the Swiss Federal Ethics Committee on Non-Human Biotechnology (ECNH). The entirety of the report (which will not be discussed here in details) can be found in this link.
http://www.ekah.admin.ch/en/topics/dignity-of-living-beings/index.html

I. The 6-point Agenda

We recommend the aforementioned organization to become vigilant in its main cause, that is, to raise awareness to the human populace that plants too have dignity. As such we are proposing a 6-point agenda in line with the committee's conclusions and summarized as follows:

1. Arbitrariness:
No arbitrary harm should be caused to plants without rational reason. Such acts are morally impermissible.

2. Instrumentalisation:
The complete instrumentalisation of plants – as a collective, as a species, or as individuals – requires moral justification.

3. Ownership of plants:
Plants – as a collective, as a species, or as individuals – are excluded for moral reasons from absolute ownership.

4. Patenting:
The patenting of plants should be morally justified and should coincide with the dignity of living beings with regard to plants.

5. Diversity:
Genetic modification of plants should always involve consideration of conserving and safeguarding the natural, i.e. not man-made, network of relationships.

6. Proportionality:
Any action with or towards plants that serves the self-preservation of humans is morally justified, as long as it is appropriate and follows the principle of precaution.

II. Basic Tenets

We also propose the following guidelines as our basic tenets in accordance with our 6-point agenda.

i. Destruction of weeds, bushes or any unwanted plant growth should be properly submitted for approval and will be decided by the committee if morally permissible.

ii. The usage of plants, i.e. as decoration (like orchids, palm trees etc), as tool or materials (like wood or leaves for houses) or as clothing (like cotton or tree fibres) should be submitted to the committee and shall only be approved if morally justifiable and if it is a necessity.

iii. Ownership of plants should be applied to the committee. Once approved, the owner is required to care for the plants in a tender and humane environment. This is applicable to those with plantations, crop fields etc. Note that ownership does not exempt the owner from the other guidelines.

iv. The patenting and genetic modification (i.e. for academic research or for medical and pharmaceutical purposes) should be closely regulated.

v. Any action done to plants, whether it be for providing food, shelter, protection to humans should be morally justified as one that serves for the self-preservation of humans. By this interpretation, any excessive action serving more than self-preservation (such as overfarming, excessive intake of plant products) is morally impermissible.

III. Advocacy

With these tenets in mind, we now advocate the following stands:

No to illegal logging. No to illegal farming. No to illegal plant owning.
No to garnishes. No to topiary. No to bonsai. No to luxurious flower festivals.
Yes to sympathetic harvesting. No to brutal woodcutting.
Stop plant torture. Abolish Palm Sunday.
Stop plant decapitation. Don't give flowers on Valentines Day.
Stop plant murder. Use artificial Christmas trees and mistletoes.
No to Hawaiian leis. Just dance without 'em.

Finally, we recommend the organization be named PEAS or Plant Empowerment and Awareness Society.

--- The PEAS Secretariat








Disclaimer: The entities mentioned herewith are all fictional except for the outgoing link to the ECNH website, which is a real and valid organization. Any similarities of the aforementioned and all elements herein, such as logos and names are not intentional.