h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

As a vegetarian who does eat the occasional meat substitute and does own a pair or two of shoes made partly with leather, I'm not getting on any high horse. But to call yourself vegetarian and eat fish is hypocritical. Vegetarians don't eat meat of any sort, nor do they eat derivitives (rennet, glycerine, etc). And yes, this includes red wine (Isinglass is taken from the swim bladders of tropical fish).

However, my Animal Free Shopper tells me that United Distillers use plant derived charcoal - so you can still get that Smirnoff down yer neck with no qualms whatsoever

That's why I didn't call myself a vegetarian, I called myself a ovo-lacto-piscatorian vegetarian. But if it makes you feel better, surely you can find it in your heart to call me an OPLP, an Ovlapiscaveg, or that guy who doesn't eat mammals (I'll pass on the joke...)? And I hope you don't mind me calling you Shirley?

I still think either you are vegetarian or you aren't, but at least you're halfway there

And don't call me Shirley!

You can call me Ray J. Johnson, Jr. if you wish!

I only end up having to define myself to rabid carnivores and true-blue vegetarians anyway, so I'll just avoid the word here.



Oh, and surely you jest!

Oh, smegging fuzz, who is that pedantic about RENNET????? I know it is sometimes derived form the stomach of bobby calves, which is gross. It's used in an extremly small part of the cheese production process, in tiny trace elements. At some point you've got to make consessions to reality and accept things; I try to avoid anything meat-derived but if, as sometimes happens, I find that what I'm eating has trace elements of say, gelatine or rennet, I don't care.

Just out of curiousity, why do you only avoid eating mammals? Birds and Fish are still living organisms, with more purpose than just being part of the food chain. OK, sure, they're stupid. Does this not mean they're not living, feeling organisms? I'm stupid. I still have feelings. And, anyway, say what you like about fish; a week ago one in the fishtank in my biology room got *stuck* behind the filter, but chickens can be quite smart, they can learn, they have complicated heirarchial dominace social structures, they can remeber things and solve avian-level problems. And that's just chooks. You should see the Keas at my local aviary. They know to wash their food before they eat it, to get the salt (which they dislike) off!

I'm fairly pedantic about rennet. I won't eat things I know have meat based gelatine or rennet in. But nor do I go on a guilt trip if I find out I've eaten it.
(chickens are great. You can hypnotise them and make them fall over by drawing a line of chalk away from them (I've never personally tried this. It is hearsay))
Some birds are very smart. Pelicans, parrots, corvids....



I'm very hungry. I'm gonna go eat a pie.

Eating non mammals is just a personal thing. I just couldn't give up eating seafood since it's been my major source of protein for most of my life. Oddly enough, I can't fish anymore because of my revulsion over hooking and clubbing a fish but for some reason if someone else does it I can deal with it. Totally unreasonable and illogical I know, but I yam wot I yam. (Yams.....yum!) I'll leap with both feet over the line here and throw in that *making an exception* about eating some mammals has been a comedic chat line in some social situations (and yes, it worked once).

Ok...I don't eat meat because I think it equates to killing. If you eat meat you should be prepared to kill the animal it came from; and I'm not capable of killing a cow, chicken, sheep or anything else. People who can't bring themselves to kill an animal but still eat meat are hypocritical. On the other hand, if you *can* kill something and eat it, then you're a murderous barstard. On the other hand, I'm not above doing something that equates to scavanging; using the leftover bits of an animal that was killed for meat, such as leather and soap, which is made from fat. So I didn't kill the animal but I fiddled around with the leftovers....

And appaerently rennet is made from bioreactors, at least in the cheese I eat. I try to avoid gelatine but yeah, sometimes I eat somthing with traces of it. I don't eat stuff like jelly, or anything with lots of gelatine, though.

And by th' way, gelatine is made from skin. So I'm still scavenging if I happen to ingest traces of it.

lol. But by the same token a meat eater can say that the animal was killed for it's leather and that they're just seeing the meat doesn't go to waste.

Ok, I've worked out the best non-meat meal for a vegetarian to cook a meat eater. Spaghetti Bollognaise. Everyone loves it, n meat eaters can't tell the difference between non meat quorn mince n cow mince. This is proven, as my nan used to make it with veggie mince for when me and my cousins where over. They used to freak out at the thought of eating rabbit-food mince, but what they didn't know was that their 'meat' bollognaise was the same stuff that was in my smaller 'veggie' bollognaise dish.

*is currently indulging in a lunch of pre-cooked (veggie) chicken bites in chinese-style sauce*

Pink Ferret, you're being a bit contradictory. It's not fair to say that you're a murdering if you have the stomach to kill something you'd be prepared to eat. If I was forced to, I'd catch and kill an animal to survive and most people who hunt do eat what they kill so I personally don't see the problem.

Yeah, I did sound contradictory. Ok, look, humans are ombnivores, we need meat to survive. My declining health testifies to that. I'm just not happy with the way meat gets to my table; I couldn't kill an animal myself, so I'm just having someone else do the dirty work for me. I don't like that so I gave up eating meat.
If you're prepared to kill for your food then you're not hypocritical, but maybe you're just not an over-the-top animal lover, like myself.

On the other paw, if you kill for 'sport', I'd say you're a bloodthirsty on an ego trip.

If you need to kill for food, that's fine. I have a lot of respect for native people who use every part of their prey, like Native Americans or Masi people.

So, essentially, I know I'm pathetic not eating meat when I should. Humans are predatores and are supposed to kill; I'm just a big softie. My real greviance is against hunters who feel a need to kill deer or ducks just for a thrill. I think that to these people, guns are an ego booster, or maybe a penis-extension.

I'm with you there. Hunting for sport is wrong for many reasons, but my main gripe is it's a waste of food!

100% agreement on this one. I'd even say that like the Aboriginals of North America, every part of the animal should be used for something, not just the meat. Some groups even prayed to the animal before the hunt, apologising for having to kill but explaining how important it was to the entire group. Now *that's* something I'd like the NRA to promote!

mmm-hmm. Modern farming is so pointless and wasteful.

ooooo ive just found this convo,so if peeps don't mind me reading the backlog,then maybe joining in..??

ive been a vegi since i was 10yrs old,,so thats almost 20yrs,wow thats a bloody long time if i do say so myself...
i don't eat any red meat,chicken,fish,etc...though i do practically live of cheese.
anyway going to lurk the backlog,then i'll be back...

Em

Agreed - modern farming being wasteful and all that. But if meat-eaters were less squeamish and eat more widely, this might not be the case. Hugh Fearnely-Whittingstall refers to "nose to tail eating".

I'm vegetarian, but I love watching River Cottage