Just suppose carrots could jump into your shopping cart. Or apples could climb down from the tree. Or tomatoes could flick away some insect pests. Would you still eat them? It’s easy to think of plant food as dead or at least unconscious, because, well, it is. But suppose by some mechanical / genetic / robotic / bionic means, bioengineers could give them simulated life? If grass could wave hello … if trees could pile up their leaves … if flowers could arrange themselves … would you still mow, chop and snip them? Maybe while you laugh? Or would you feel so kindly toward them, you’d now think of them as friends or pets? After you got over the initial total creepout, of course.