Abstract

The animalization of plants proponed by Western rationalization compromises ecological integrity and is a major cause of climatic disasters worldwide. It is crucial to reveal the contradictions and paradoxes of applying to crops animal-centered notions such as nutrition, sexual reproduction and competition. These notions convey catabolic rationales, i.e. rationales based on “take” and “consume” purposes that are ontologically alien to plants. We recommend to raise structured arguments to address these paradoxes and to disentangle the animal normative footprint by developing sound, plant-centered notions. The plant is an “open being” and has no inside nor outside, thus it cannot ingest or mate or defend, or act in a proper sense. It is not topologically separate from us as we think we are from it and requires adequate descriptors of its distinctive mode of being. We propose that the plant ontological determination requires a specific statement in organic core values. To care for plants as plants implies that social and in-context values are considered as important as technical issues. Plant-human community entanglement makes sense and should be defended for the sake of organic crop flourishing.