Superb article. And, of course, if someone truly believed that plants are sentient yet, rather than taking that as a reason to care more about plants, took it as a reason to care less about animals, then it would follow (by their own line of 'logic') that we should also care less (if at all) about other humans. The "but you eat plants" retort might sound witty and reasonable at the dinner table (at least to the person who utters it) but I suspect it would carry a lot less weight in a court of law if used in response to an accusation of serial murder or sadistic child torture. In that context, it becomes obscenely and glaringly obvious that the argument is one which only a psychopath or an imbecile would use.