# Eating without killing **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 3, 2020, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-without-killing/927063 "2020-12-03T02:41:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Jillena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e495f1/32.png) [@Jillena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jillena)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2020, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-without-killing/927063/41 "2020-12-03T07:13:24Z")
Very cool reply… thankyou. ---
**Author:** ![Jillena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e495f1/32.png) [@Jillena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jillena)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2020, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-without-killing/927063/42 "2020-12-03T07:14:28Z")
Hmm thoughtful. ---
**Author:** ![Jillena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e495f1/32.png) [@Jillena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jillena)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2020, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-without-killing/927063/43 "2020-12-03T07:16:10Z")
Good addition that, the washed up seaweed one, me thinks. ---
**Author:** ![Jillena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e495f1/32.png) [@Jillena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jillena)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2020, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-without-killing/927063/44 "2020-12-03T07:18:16Z")
Mmm, wow, is that possible? ---
**Author:** ![Jillena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e495f1/32.png) [@Jillena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jillena)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2020, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-without-killing/927063/45 "2020-12-03T07:19:45Z")
Yep we have a winner hahaha ---
**Author:** ![Jillena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e495f1/32.png) [@Jillena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jillena)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2020, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-without-killing/927063/46 "2020-12-03T07:20:55Z")
Ohh yes i remember those days …pain by the bucket load ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2020, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-without-killing/927063/47 "2020-12-03T13:26:01Z")
ISTM you are basically looking for Jain cuisine. So animal flesh, fish, and eggs are out; so is milk, due to modern industrial practices, not sure about in-vitro meat (but note stuff like non-fresh yoghurt is out because of the harmed microorganisms). Potatoes, onions, garlic, carrots, yams, turnips are out. Fermented stuff, mushrooms, yeast, honey, killing plants are out. Fruit, green vegetables, lentils, beans, legumes…, nuts, seeds, rice, cereals, etc., are OK. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2020, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-without-killing/927063/48 "2020-12-03T13:36:15Z")
If you want to be absolutely sure that you are doing no harm to any living thing, you need to be a practitioner of Inedia or breatharianism, which is the claimed ability for a person to live without consuming food of any kind. Now, Wikipedia says, “It is a deadly pseudoscience, and several adherents of these practices have died from starvation or dehydration. It is an established fact that humans require food and water to survive.” Personally, I think that’s just evil propaganda being pushed by people who earn their living murdering plants and animals. 😈 ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2020, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-without-killing/927063/49 "2020-12-03T13:40:20Z")
Pardon me if this has already been posted but what about lab-grown meat? Maybe the original ‘it’ was killed, but I’ve read we can take stem cells and grow tissues in labs which basically mimic the actual living organism. I believe they did this in Singapore just last week, in fact. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2020, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-without-killing/927063/50 "2020-12-03T13:51:26Z")
Post 4, but you provided more details. > [@What\_Exit](#): > > How do you feel about the lab grown meat their working on? This would be meat that was never a viable animal. ---
**Author:** ![Gray\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2020, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-without-killing/927063/51 "2020-12-03T14:00:38Z")
There may be nothing but saliva in the nests, but does the flavor of the nest reflect the bird’s diet to that point? Like the difference in flavor between fish or lake-bottom dwellers-eating ducks, and corn or rice fed ducks? Just curious. I don’t think it’s been explicitly mentioned in the thread, but the process for obtaining milk from dairy cattle requires a lot of killing. Ask yourself what happens to bull calves, for one. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2020, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-without-killing/927063/52 "2020-12-03T14:48:07Z")
> [@Gray\_Ghost](#): > > Ask yourself what happens to bull calves, for one. Mmmmm, delicious, tasty, veal. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2020, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-without-killing/927063/53 "2020-12-03T14:53:51Z")
> [@Gray\_Ghost](#): > > There may be nothing but saliva in the nests, but does the flavor of the nest reflect the bird’s diet to that point? I haven’t tried it, and considering the cost I probably never will, but the nests are not supposed to taste like much of anything. (And since the diet of the birds is gnats and other small insects, that’s probably a good thing.) The nests are used to give a mucilaginous texture to the soup, as in other items of Chinese cuisine like shark-fin soup. The soup is usually flavored with chicken broth, so that’s mostly what you taste (so as usually prepared, wouldn’t qualify). As near as I can tell, it’s basically chicken/snot soup. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2020, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-without-killing/927063/54 "2020-12-03T15:49:21Z")
> [@Jasmine](#): > > If you want to be absolutely sure that you are doing no harm to any living thing, you need to be a practitioner of Inedia or breatharianism, which is the claimed ability for a person to live without consuming food of any kind. > > Now, Wikipedia says, “It is a deadly pseudoscience, and several adherents of these practices have died from starvation or dehydration. It is an established fact that humans require food and water to survive.” Personally, I think that’s just evil propaganda being pushed by people who earn their living murdering plants and animals. 😈 Well yes - though if you’ve actually figured out a way to get the energy to live from the air you breathe, it follows that you’re taking that energy away from other living things and quite possibly committing murder in the process. In these days of modern sewage treatment, I doubt the fruit and vegetable seeds we consume are finding their way back to the soil to create new plants and trees, and the few that germinate would likely be less adaptable and productive than their ancestors. Colibri’s mention of placentas has worth. They might look less objectionable if frozen and marketed with appealing packaging. “Mother Earth Placentas - Nourish the Inner You” is a catchy slogan. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2020, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-without-killing/927063/55 "2020-12-03T16:03:49Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Also many vegetables are killed when they are harvested. And they likely do [scream in anguish](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/scientists-record-stressed-out-plants-emitting-ultrasonic-squeals-180973716/) when stressed. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2020, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-without-killing/927063/56 "2020-12-03T21:03:39Z")
Perhaps someday we can genetically modified ourselves to have large green photosynthesizing wings. Then we could lie in the sun, spread out wings, and generate enough blood sugar…i dunno, could a span of wrong your could carry around generate enough food to keep you alive as you lay quietly, absorbing sun light? ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2020, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-without-killing/927063/57 "2020-12-03T22:00:08Z")
> [@Jillena](#): > > … as to what can be eaten on the right side of moral, causing no pain, nor death. … Rewinding back about 40 posts You ask for a debate but then you assume your conclusion right there in your almost opener. The debate is not which edible things magically cause no pain or death in their consumption. Hint: the answer to that is very very close to “nothing”. The debate (or at least the only non-sterile debate within a mile of your POV) is where the line between right side of moral and wrong side of moral is _given_ the necessity for all life of all types & scales to kill other life, perhaps at other scales, just to live to tomorrow, much less to live to reproduce. I hate to break it to you, but it’s kill-to-eat all the way down. It gets even more grisly if you consider preventing other life to be a form of killing. That ropes all the photosynthetic plants into the murder biz too. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2020, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-without-killing/927063/58 "2020-12-03T22:04:30Z")
Is it morally right that I should suffer while delicious things live, I ask you. ---
**Author:** ![Girl\_From\_Mars](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3da27b/32.png) [@Girl\_From\_Mars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Girl_From_Mars)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2020, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-without-killing/927063/59 "2020-12-03T22:19:57Z")
I think the current issue with lab grown meat is that the medium it is grown in currently involves fetal bovine serum cells, which come from dead calves. So while it requires only a small tissue sample for the actual meat, the process is far from cruelty free at the moment. Assume this could change as they refine the process. ---
**Author:** ![Jillena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e495f1/32.png) [@Jillena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jillena)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2020, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-without-killing/927063/60 "2020-12-03T22:22:01Z")
So just be thankful for the fact we have something to eat to keep alive. Shiit huh!? It’s the best thing to do, other than kill ourselves because we feel morally justified to; if our existence causes pain; well I simply don’t want to live. Where does God stand on that I wonder. I reckon we have to humbly admit that we are not the controller of life or anything for that matter, and yep…just be thankful to get out of the moral dilemma. Someday I hope we all are relieved from this angst. Thankyou LSL Guy, your’s and others thoughtful and funny replies make me feel less alone. Cheers from an Earth dweller heaven citizen by the grace of God. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-without-killing/927063.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-without-killing/927063.md?page=4)