> The researchers used microphones to record healthy and stressed tomato and tobacco plants, first in a soundproofed acoustic chamber and then in a noisier greenhouse environment. They stressed the plants via two methods: by not watering them for several days and by cutting their stems. After recording the plants, the researchers trained a machine-learning algorithm to differentiate between unstressed plants, thirsty plants, and cut plants.

This is interesting but obviously very different from the suffering that animals are experiencing.

Man, by that standard a metal rod screams when you cut it.

Exactly — it's not even remotely comparable. It's like comparing a life-threatening disease to a paper cut. The scale is too much different.