At a wedding a vegetarian guest wasnÂ’t eating something with egg in it. He said it was because he wouldnÂ’t eat something that had the potential for life.
OK, I can see that. However, most chickens nowadays never even see a rooster, let alone have the chance to mate, so thereÂ’d be no potential there.
All right, maybe a rooster snuck into the henhouse one night and one of the eggs out of a million might have been one from a chicken that had a fling. I also understand the objection to the way chickens are raised.
However, if you had your own chickens, and knew they had never mated with a rooster, would any vegetarian have a problem with those eggs? That would also go for if you knew for a fact the eggs came from an unfertilized chicken.
Something that does get to me are when some vegetarians say they will eat fish.
Oh yeah, I get this sharp hook embedded in the roof of my mouth. Then IÂ’m tugged around by the hook for awhile.
Then, IÂ’m ripped out of my environment and someone grabs my tail and slams my head as hard as they can against the bulkhead. Finally, I get tossed into a bucket so I can suffocate.
I like soy, just had some macaroni and soy cheese.
I like fish too.
The person may very well be a vegan, which is the most "fundamentalist" form of vegetarianism.
Quote:
what is a VEGAN? A vegan (pronounced VEE-gun) is someone who, for various reasons, chooses to avoid using or consuming animal products. While vegetarians choose not to use flesh foods, vegans also avoid dairy and eggs, as well as fur, leather, wool, down, and cosmetics or chemical products tested on animals.
Something that does get to me are when some vegetarians say they will eat fish.
Chai- I think that vegetarians run the gamut, in terms of how strictly they adhere to the concept. It sort of reminds me of former neighbor who claimed to be strictly kosher, but would eat Chinese food in her house on paper plates with plastic throwaway utensils. To each his own!
I'm not a vegetarian, but I used to live in a house-full of 'em. I think part of the objection there is not just whether a specific egg has potential, but the inudustry that ensures that a given egg doesn't have potential. Like, if you find a fur coat in a bag on the curb with the garbage and it's just gonna be incinerated and the animal has already been killed after all, can you wear it? No because it contributes to the industry indirectly by saying that wearing fur is OK/ fashionable/ whatever.
Phoenix is dead on about the range of vegetarians. I know many who simply feel a diet without butcher's meat is healthier, and they will eat cheese, eggs and fish. Others are vegetarian for ideological reasons. Many young vegetarians whom i have met are militantly vegetarian and are also ignorant about how food is produced--that's why i mentioned cheese. Those who cater to the vegetarian and vegan markets really make a mint on them, too. "Vegetarian" cheese (which is awful stuff) is as expensive as hell.
By the way, India is a nation with hundreds of millions of vegetarians. They will drink milk. Not slaughtering the cattle has been a good idea for centuries. In the life of a cow in milch, they will produce many times as much protein as one could get by slaughtering the animal. Additionally, their manure is used to fertilize fields, and is dried and used for fuel. Really, the idea of the "sacred cow" is a good one, and one wonders who came up with such a brilliant use of a resource.
I don't get the "potential for life" thing either. I don't give much of a shit about anybody's potential for life, and I'm about as soft-hearted (or headed, whatever) about animals as you can get...If I started to worry about an egg's potential for life, then I'd prolly hafta rethink where I stand on abortion also. I wonder if he was a pro-lifer too?? Hmmm....
Anyway, I don't eat eggs just 'cause of the conditions the chicken that laid it was in, and that's the reason most veggies of any stripe that I know don't eat them. I occasionally meet people who keep a few chickens for fun and don't slaughter them when they quit laying, and then I don't mind an egg if I can get it.
(nobody tell them that "vegetarian cheese" comes from between the toes of cadaevers)
Oh, well, that does explain why it's so frightening, I suppose.
I think that's still vegetarian though, as long as the cadaver wasn't killed for the purpose of harvesting veggie cheese...Now there's an interesting moral question...
Cheese is made when milk is curdled with rennet, separating the protein solids from the liquid (curds and whey). The usual source for rennet is from the stomachs of slaughtered cattle. Vegetarian cheese is made with a vegetable substitute. As i mentioned earlier, it is nasty cheese, and they charge and arm and a leg for it, exploiting their customers shamelessly. Bio-engineering has now found a way to produce bacterial cells which will produce rennet.
I was seriously thinking about getting me a few chickens, since I have all this land I could share with a few friendly birds.
of course my chickens would instantly become my friends and they would live until they die of old age :-)
I usually buy organic eggs -- though a recent article in the New Yorker about "Big Organic" has me wondering how much of a difference that actually makes.
Michael Pollan has some interesting stuff to say on this whole issue. While I have no particular compunctions about eating meat, I would much rather eat the meat of a cow raised on a small family farm, grazing on grass, not loaded up with antibiotics, for reasons of both principle and health.
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