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

Yeah I've heard it misused by people who just eat white meat and fish as well. I mean excuse me!!!

Hmm, it looks like I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place. If I choose to let Lux in, I risk bringing hostility into an environment that was intended to be just the opposite. If I deny him membership, I risk angering him and perhaps others. I knew this issue might come up, and that's why I included in the HVS Mission Statement:

"...regardless of ideology or personal definition of vegetarianism."

Some vegans argue that the consumption of any animal products, eggs and dairy included, invalidates any claim to being a "true" vegetarian. As a matter of fact, I have heard milk referred to as "liquid meat". On the flip side, the Roman Catholic Church does not recognize fish as meat, which is why Catholics are allowed to eat fish on Lenten Fridays, when "meat" is forbidden. Personally, I disagree with both of these views. My policy is if it was never alive, it isn't meat. But it just goes to show that even if Webster or Oxford put clear cut definitions on the word "vegetarian", it is really much more abstract than that. To conclude, I am granting membership to Lux. I hope you all can accept him, but if anyone truely cannot tolerate being in a vegetarian society with a fisheater, I will regretably accept your resignation from the HVS. However, I hope that won't be nessecary.

Anyway, you are all linked up now. Welcome to the H2G2 Vegetarian Society! Thanks for joining. I'd also like to thank everyone who linked to the HVS from their user page, or promoted it in any other way. Your help is greatly appreciated. That's all for now.

hey i want to join but i also want my crap-o-matic can opener.
that sort of thing usually comes in handy when i'm trying to open my cans of crap-o-matic vegetable crunchies i eat for breakfast every morning.

No conflict or offence intended Zarquon and Lux. You're right about the mission statement Z, and there are a lot of potential grey areas, my own personal ones being cheese and beer. It was never my intention to imply exclusion or required exclusion of anyone. The original post was intended to have a light hearted side to it and I apologise if anyone thought it was intended to exclude them .

Well I thought it was funny. I've had that conversation a thousand times, and I'm likewise of the opinion that your own dietary choice is up to you, but I don't really think you're vegetarian if you eat fish. Having said that, as you pointed out, a lot of beers are fined (clarified) with various fish gland products, as are nearly all non-organic wines. Vegetarian cheeses are freely available using a fungus based rennet alternative here in Britain, but I don't know if this is the case everywhere, so if you don't get these you're eating a product obtained from the guts of calves. Nice.

Thanks jasegroom . I think I'd classify myself as 'good, but not that good', I *do* buy veggie cheese / wine / beer when I can, but when the need for cheese or a pint comes upon me....

I have great admiration for vegans and other strict vegetarians, but I am weak. My only comfort personally is that doing something is better than doing nothing.

:::Zmrzlina stands on soapbox, slowly peels off the label "vegetarian" and places it on a rusty old can to stick in the back of the pantry.:::

I am just someone who prefers vegetables, grains, fruits and nuts. I don't disprage those who eat other things. There's enogh dissension in the world without adding dietary choice to the litany. I do enjoy the company of...even love...those who do not share my choices. If perchance my choice influences another toward the same direction, it will not be through derision or exclusion.

:::stepping off soapbox and returning to the back of the room:::

*A gentle round of applause, and polite murmurings of 'hear, hear' and 'well said' accompany Zmrzlina to the back of the room *

Hi there! Count me in.

-N.

Well, I'm very glad to see we are a tolerant bunch. I have many meat-eating friends as well. As a matter of fact, I live in a very traditional community, and there are hardly any vegetarians in sight. I know of 2, but I really don't even know them very well. But now I'm rambling. I tend to do that sometimes. Anyhow, I'll add the newbies when I get the chance. And Reni, linking from your user page is easy. Just make sure it is set on GuideML, then type the following:

The H2G2 Vegetarian Society

I'm going to try to add some Guide entry links to the the HVS home page tonight. And if I get extra time (which I doubt I will) I'll start the recipe section.

I like the sound of "demi-vegetarian". Then again, I can't quite see it working in conversation:

"Would you like a kebab?"
"No thanks, I'm demi-vegetarian."

I was a proper vegetarian for years, and I used to find it annoying that some people ate fish, but I guess it depends on your reasons for being veggie in the first place. Once my job started sending me to places where "vegetarian" means the same as "please don't feed me", my willpower quickly crumbled.

I don't know whether you'll let me in as, though I'm vegetarian (?), while I'm living at home my mum makes me eat fish occasionally. But when I'm off to Uni in sept I can truly become a vegie.

btw has any one writen to sweet companies asking them to stop using gluten in sweets and switch to non meat gelling agents instead? I will do sometime but currently in A-Levels, so anyone else?....


Nicholas Bailey

Lux...I know exactly what you mean when you say "places where 'vegetarian' means the same as 'please don't feed me'." That is what it is like for me when I visit Slovakia. It's getting better, but I still consider a trip there to be a pleasurable weight loss program.

Gelatine-free sweets are getting more common, as more companies realise they can do without. Trouble is, a lot of my friends are involved in various boycotts, so I still have to be careful:

"Polo?"
"No thanks."
"It's OK, they're vegetarian nowadays."
"Yes, but they're still made by Nestle."

You just can't win...

OK, mockturtl, Niten, Yeliab, I added you all to the list. Welcome to the H2G2 Vegetarian Society! I also added a few h2g2 articles. (vegetarianism, Tofu, Hummous, and Vegetarian Wheat Germ Shepard's Pie). I know the vegetarianism one is a little bit controversial, but it is the Guide's official take on vegetarianism, so I thought I should include it. Any objections? I'd like to have your input on these matters. While I can't promise a pure democracy, I will try to listen to the needs and ideas of all our members as best I can, so please speak up when ever you have a thought. Thank you.

Sign me up...don't eat anything that has/had a face.

I mean I wouldn't eat shellfish either, but it sounds more interesting the other way.

oh... but potatoes have got eyes and corn has ears

(or something)

(ignore me)

I'm a vegetarian. Does this mean I get a link? Yay !

It certainly does! Welcome Ioteth, Cheese. I have added you to the list.

I also alphabetized the h2g2 entries and external links, something I should have done from the beginning. Over the weekend I will have more time to work on the page, and I hope to add the recipe section in that time. If anyone has a recipe they would like to see on there, please contact me in this thread or through my HVS email address ( [email protected] ). If the recipe is not already on the web, I would prefer you conduct it through the email, so this thread doesn't take even longer to load.

My wife and I have this discussion from time to time. She claimed the title "vegetarian" well before I, but still, every once in a while, she enters the seafood zone.

The term we use is "pesco-vegetarian". No one knows what it means, but it sounds good...!

-N.