The funny thing is, there’s more of a symbiotic relationship between us and plants.
Those plants that exhibited favorable traits for human consumption were carried far from their native ecosystem and through biome barriers they couldn’t have otherwise. In the same way peppers with capsaicin (which allowed birds/reptiles to eat and spread them around while deterring mammals that would otherwise ruin the seed) became more successful, wheat, corn and other grasses became more successful when the kernels got bigger because it encouraged humans to harvest those and maybe keep some for later/spread them around.
Plants may not have any agency but the fact is some of them evolved traits that made this upright monkey eventually toil away to guarantee their reproduction year after year.
The funny thing is, there’s more of a symbiotic relationship between us and plants.
Those plants that exhibited favorable traits for human consumption were carried far from their native ecosystem and through biome barriers they couldn’t have otherwise. In the same way peppers with capsaicin (which allowed birds/reptiles to eat and spread them around while deterring mammals that would otherwise ruin the seed) became more successful, wheat, corn and other grasses became more successful when the kernels got bigger because it encouraged humans to harvest those and maybe keep some for later/spread them around.
Plants may not have any agency but the fact is some of them evolved traits that made this upright monkey eventually toil away to guarantee their reproduction year after year.