The Secret Life of Plants author admits error

Matt: Do plants feel pain? — Marcos, San Diego

Mankind has tried, mankind has failed to prove that lettuce shrieks in pain when we tear it up for salad. Peter Tompkins started all this in the early ’70s with a book of bad science called The Secret Life of Plants. Even Tompkins now admits the experiments he cited proved to be junk. No central nervous system, no sensation of pain as we know it, that’s our motto. But the world’s fruitarians — people who eat nothing but nuts and fruits so they won’t inflict agony and anguish on plants — obviously disagree, though they don’t have any proof either. But I’m going to get letters about this one, I’m sure.