Fruitarians only eat plant food that has been harested without killing the plant, ie., fruits. How they do this for any length of time and stay healthy is beyond me. I think when you get to the point of fruitarians and raw foodists and breatharians :rolleyes: you’ve probably taken things a bit too far.
Um, no, biologically-speaking I think you’re right, the human species is omnivorous. I know some vegans refer to themselves as herbivores half-facetiously, and will call non-vegs carnivores or omnivores, but they and I may not using the term in the scientifically correct way. Does anyone know if “herbi–”, “omni–” and “carni–” refers to the species or the individual?
Just a quick point, most eggs sold are unfertilized, so would not qualify as an “unborn animal” (though I know this is a sticky point).
I believe the terms normally refer to the species, though there is no reason they can’t be applied to an individual. I think it would be difficult to find any truly carnivorous humans.
If I owned a pet wolf and fed it only soy products and a strict vegetarian diet, that wouldn’t make it a vegetarian. This is just a guess, but I think the prefix refers to the species, not the individual.
As far as placentas go, I’ve heard of vegetarians/ vegans eating them in stew, as well. Their rationalization is that it’s the only “meat” that doesn’t need for something to die. It’s loaded with (at least) 8 essential vitamins and minerals! However, from what I’ve heard it’s almost a cult-ish offshoot of veganism. it’s not commonly practised.
In addition to that, I’ve heard that it tastes awful.
[hijack]
And then there is of course the 2000 Ignoble prize for literature:
[/hijack]
On the placenta question, I’m a vegetarian and have never known anyone to do this, but certainly have heard it being done. It is not a common practice 'round these parts, though (at least in so far as my immediate circle of friends goes). A search engine of your choice should bring up many placental recipes. I would think this is pretty much seperate from vegans and vegetarians, though.
continuing the hijack…
What? This guy doesn’t eat? Nothing? How can he live without eating? Why do we have a stomach and a digestive system of we aren’t supposed to eat? Is this guy for real or is this a joke?
I think this guy is sneaking food somewhere…
It should be pointed out that it used to be accepted that vegitarians could eat fish. I am curious as to when this changed, but the older works would call the majority of Japanese vegitarians since they didn’t eat game or fowl, but did eat fish. Also, the Catholic prohibition against eating meat on fridays didn’t extend to fish, so they were considered acceptable for vegitarians for that reason as well, I believe.
Ya know, this topic is actually occasionally discussed in earnest at the message boards I linked above. The usual answer is that, yes, oral sex (and breast-feeding, too, before you ask) is vegan, since generally no animals are harmed or exploited during the course of normal oral sex. Now, if you’re talking about oral sex with a goat, that… that I don’t want to think about.
Vegetarians do not eat fish. Perhaps fish-eating was considered “vegetarian” years ago, but it is no longer. If you look at the mainstream vegetarian restaurants, cookbooks, magazines, they NEVER include fish in their recipes. Sure, there will be some people who will insist they are vegetarian while eating fish, but this is no longer the accepted mainstream standard for vegetarianism.
A Boulder restaurant owner was sued for including fish stock in his “vegetarian” marinara sauce. The patron, upon finding out the “secret ingrediant” sued Jay, of Pasta Jay’s for the sum of every meal he had consumed in that establishment during the previous six years - a total of about $600.00.
The owner, Jay*, actually chose not settle, went to court and tried to defend himself with the notion that, duh, everybody knows marinara means “from the sea”, of course it had fish in it. Vegetarian meant it didn’t have “meat” in it. The judge didn’t see it that way. Jay lost. For the life me why he spent such a pittance on BAD publicity instead of just refunding the guy, who came across as totally reasonable, escapes me.
*Jay is the friend of the Ramsey’s who threatened the reporters out front of their Boulder home with a baseball bat. I think that got reported nationally, not sure. It was a big freaking three ring circus side-show here, though. It only added to his less than popular local reputation.
How do strict vegans get around the problems with books and photographs? Conventional photographic film has the light sensitive chemicals suspended in geletin which is made from animals. Even in this digital age most large scale printing uses a conventional photographic plate to create the final printing plate.
Surely books on veganism could not be tolerated without a serious compromise of principles.
[indignant outburst in defence of the family fortune]
What’s the basis for this “wool is an objectionable industry” from a vegan /vegetarian perspective?
[/indignant outburst in defence of the family fortune]
Okay, folks, the party line is this: It’s impossible to be 100% pure vegan because there are animal products in everything. The important thing is to do the best that you can to avoid the big stuff–meat, dairy, eggs, honey, leather, wool, silk, etc.–and not drive yourself insane over the weensy bits of animal products that are in film or plastic or what-have-you. Here is an archive of “but what about…” questions relating to veganism.
Here is PETA’s little bit on wool. Okay, so it’s not the most unbiased source, but you asked for the “vegan perpspective.” (and, okay, even a lot of vegans don’t like PETA, but I don’t feel like doing real research.) Here is the Ask Joanne (archive linked above) column on wool. Remember that most vegans feel that any “use” of animals, no matter how gentle and well-intentioned it may be, is wrong.
This may be a BBQ pit type answer. I know many self proclaimed vegitarians. I only hear of Vegans. Vegans seem to be the ones whose personal habits go beyond personal. They appear to me to be a radical element who are not content with their lifestyle being a personal choice. They are on a crusade to win converts and torment meat eaters.
Cooldude, how many vegans do you personally know? How can you speak for all vegandom?
I know pain-in-the-ass veggie/vegans, and I know plenty who are low-key. You’d never know they were veggie, until mealtime comes around. I also know plenty of meat-eaters who like to “torment” veggies. They know one or two annoying vegetarians, and they feel like this gives them permission to annoy and pester any and all vegetarians. (Usually who are minding their own business at the time.) I have had this happen to me many times. I even started a Pit thread about it.
I can’t and won’t label all meat-eaters as people who want to pester vegetarians/vegans, however. And I don’t see how you can label all vegans that way.
