Throughout history there have been religious reasons not to eat any kind of meat, for example Manichaeism held that eating ANYTHING was an act of darkness but especially meat which involved killing. That’s not what I’m talking about. Instead, I’m wondering about people who choose vegetarianism based on humane or ethical reasons (“an animal should not suffer or be killed to provide me sustenance”): this basis does not apparently preclude making use of animals who died of natural causes. Scavenging, you might say.
Obviously this won’t be a simple yes/no question because there is a wide range of behavior among people. For example I remember reading somewhere about how human placenta was a sought after delicacy among a certain subset of vegs because it was essentially “allowed meat”; the fact that it came from a human source was not a deterrent. (Eek.) So if there are vegetarians who would eat human placenta, perhaps there are vegetarians would eat roadkill?! (Or does that count as “killed by man”?) Or if a sheep dropped dead in a field?
One must wonder however if that’s really ideologically driven or also influenced by necessity - based on the employment prospects of the typical radical greenie.
I’m a vegetarian for ethical reasons, but I’ve been vegetarian for a while and I’m really not interested in finding loopholes that would allow me to eat meat. When I first went veg, it was kind of difficult because I LIKED meat. And every once in a while, I’m a bit tempted. But for the most part, I don’t have any interest in eating meat anymore. I chose not to and I’m really not suffering because of it.
But if I were that desperate for meat, I would go get some and eat it. Nobody’s making me be a vegetarian. Placenta and roadkill sound just as disgusting to me as they do to anyone else.
Huh? I know “radical greenies” who are lawyers scientists and some who work at Starbucks. I don’t understand what you’re talking about.
As for the OP, my sister finds the idea of eating animal meat about as gross as cannibalism. So whether the animal died of natural causes doesn’t really matter. She’d no more eat a naturally dead goat, than a recently deceased grandmother.
I’m a vegetarian, and I’ve done freeganism, aka dumpster diving. Supermarkets throw a lot out - all of it in dumpsters with nothing but food in them. Food wrapped in plastic bags, in fact. I’d never scavenge meat though - not least because that sounds unsanitary to me (yeah, yeah, “You’re dumpster diving, what do you have to say about unsanitary!” - but I think spoiled meat would be a much bigger worry than “have my vegetables wilted a little”).
I’m not a vegetarian, and I agree with you. I’ve never actually ‘done’ dumpster diving, but I eat fresh fruits and such that have set out on the counter (like in a fruit bowl) for days. I would never eat raw meat that has set out for any length of time. And it’s a lot easier to tell, by sight, when produce is spoiled, as opposed to when raw meat is spoiled!
As to the OP, this question has been kicked around here before, albeit in the form of questions like “Would vegetarians eat vat-grown meat?” etc. I think that, as some others upthread have said, once you adapt to a veg lifestyle, the whole idea of meat starts to seem, well, icky.
Having said that, my FIL’s father was a vegetarian (long before it was ‘cool’), and even though he was, a couple of times a year, he’d get a hankering for some ‘stinky cheese’, and go get a couple of ounces and eat it. According to my FIL, his father always felt guilty after his ‘cheese binges’.
You could probably digest it (I’ve read that we shed enough of our own tummy cells that we never totally lose the enzymes to break down flash), but trust me, you’d get really, really gassy. :o
I think for the most part once people have been vegetarians as an ingrained part of their lifestyle, and haven’t eaten meat in quite a while, it just becomes something they no longer desire to pursue, even if it’s “ethical” meat.
As a very recent pescetarian, as of watching “Food, Inc.” on March 31st, I’m not sure I would really consider eating animals that died under “ethical” circumstances, either. It’s just not worth the trouble for something that would be so rarely added to the diet anyway. I have been having a dream about once a week about cooking and eating a huge Porterhouse or Ribeye, though.
Been a vegetarian for 24 years now… the very idea of eating something’s corpse is so grotesque to me that I couldn’t do it. I don’t have an *ethical *problem with it, however, and in a starvation situation I’d do it… but I would never do it short of dire, dire, DIRE need. I just don’t regard meat as food… it’s decaying corpses. Ew.
[On re-read I should clarify that by “it” when I say I have no ethical problem, I’m referring to scavenging/eating meat that has died of natural causes, etc.]
One of my friends in college became a vegetarian due to “humility,” she didn’t think she was worthy of something else’s life being taken away.
But… she also didn’t want to see things go to waste. So, if she saw something on our trays in the cafeteria when we were done, instead of going back up to the line for seconds, she’d scrounge off our plates (especially if it was a chicken sandwich).
There’s a zine out there called “Feral Forager”, which is about eating roadkills, wild plants, insects, tanning hides, and there’s a whole paragraph about “Is roadkill vegan?”
They say it’s all about the reasons behind your veganism. One of the contributors to the zine is a vegan who only eats roadkilled animals.
Not primarily an ethical vegetarian myself, but my experience is that I simply don’t find meat at ALL appetizing anymore. I imagine that this would be the case regardless of my motivations/rationales for not eating meat to begin with.
I never feel tempted to eat meat and have to remind myself of WHY I chose to stop eating it. It’s just not an issue. Once one stops eating meat on a regular basis, it quickly becomes apparent that meat is dead flesh and rather disgusting…smells gross, looks gross, not tempting at all. At least that has been my experience and that of many I’ve known.
Ethically, I suppose eating only already killed and trashed meat or meat which did not involve killing at all (placenta…the only disposable organ:cool:) would be an out. I doubt many would feel the desire to take advantage of it, though.
Reminds me of the story about how Budhists in certain areas will buy and eat meat but ONLY after the butcher has sold to everyone else all day and is about to close. Then they go and buy whatever might be left, rationalizing that it was not killed on THEIR behalf and would just go to waste.
But of course, the butcher knows to expect them and so kills extra every day. Not a valid ethical out. :dubious:
I just haven’t ever met anyone who has been a vegetarian for longer than a year or so who had any craving/desire for meat. Ever. Not saying they don’t exist, but not in my experience.
Yeah, and in a similar vein it’s not clear that roadkill is 100% a “natural” death. Plus you’re beating out the crows, hawks and other birds that feed from carrion from their rightful niche.
