The Cellar Image of the Day

How do you know someone's a vegan? Just wait, they'll tell you. ba-dum-tss
It's funny because it's true, however once you get past the ones who are bandwagon jumpers and bragging, there's more to it. The rest are either the PETA camp whining about animal cruelty, or people who have actually read the evidence, and want to explain the many health benefits.

Since most people's eyes glaze over when anyone tells the about a healthier lifestyle, even(especially?) if it's their doctor, these folks usually throw in some be-good-to-the-Earth stuff to keep your attention. The fly (stop it) in their ointment is the difficulty, the work involved, in buying and preparing veggies to get enough protein.

Well, here she comes to save the day! Katharina Unger is on the way!

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Farm 432 enables people to become independent from the system of current meat production by growing their own protein source at home. After 432 hours, 1 gram of black soldier fly eggs turn into 2.4 kilogram of larvae protein, larvae that self-harvest and fall clean and ready to eat into a harvest bucket. Black soldier fly adults don´t eat, therefore they don´t have any mouth parts and do not transmit any disease. The larvae can be fed on bio waste, therefore the production almost costs no water or CO2. Black soldier fly larvae are one of the most efficient protein converters in insects, containing up to 42% of protein (dried), a lot of calcium and amino acids.

Maybe it saves vegans who fall off the bandwagon from going beyond the point of no return.

are they considering that the larvae are freely giving themselves to be eaten? So they'd actually fit in with a fruitarian diet? Or are we just interpreting vegans as people who don't approve of the farming of cute animals who appear regularly in story books?

It has more to do with the practical considerations of doing the greatest good for animals as a whole. Take a look at this article by a self described longtime vegan and vegan advocate:

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If Vegans Replaced Plants With Insects, They'd Harm Fewer Animals ...

... On the face of things, the question seems moot. Vegans don’t eat animals; insects are animals; vegans therefore don’t eat insects. End of story. But this simple little syllogism betrays the very real possibility that vegans, by virtue of their quest to reduce animal suffering, may not only be permitted to eat insects—they may be obligated to do so. ...

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... All that said, with the insect option now on the table the vegan equation has fundamentally changed. The choice is no longer between incidental or non-incidental deaths of obviously sentient creatures. It’s no longer between the mice crushed by a combine and the pig taken to the abattoir. Instead, it’s now between the intentional death of animals who likely suffer minimally or not at all (insects) and those that clearly do suffer (bunnies, deer, mice, etc.) when plants are grown.

As a longtime vegan and vegan advocate, I’m well aware how this argument threatens the vegan identity. Of course, it’s much easier to declare, “I don’t eat animals or animal products” than it is to blur the lines that serve as clear ethical commandments. But as the prospect of eating insects gains traction, vegans may be forced to acknowledge the inconvenient fact that including these critters in our diet—yes, eating animals—is an essential way to achieve the ultimate vegan goal of reducing the suffering of animals who we know can suffer.

Dietary vegans, ovo-lacto vegetarians, ethical vegans, and environmental vegans, all eschew animal protein as in sweet yummy bacon.
The larvae will give them lots of protein without molesting animals, their common goal.
I don't even know what he hell a fruitarian is.

The funny thing is I was going to design one of these things to automatically feed chickens. It is apparently pretty common in dirty hippie circles. Great design though if it wasn't bugs I'd eat what was produced in such a tidy way.

If we aren't to eat meat, why then do we have incisors, canines (teeth) and premolars.

Eventually, we would only have molars and no front jaws.

Pardon me, we are omnivores, we have always been omnivores and I intend to stay that way.

So there.

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Originally Posted by blueboy56

As for the larvae ... bleeecccchhh.

Any vegan worth the name knows that it's impossible to be protein-deficient if you're taking in enough calories to meet your metabolic needs (roughly 700 kcal/day). Protein deficiency is called kwashiorkor. It really isn't an issue in the USA, particularly among those who are vegans by decision.

??? You can what? No one said anything about refusing to eat food containing DNA.

Be protein deficient.

I was referencing a recent study where people when polled wanted food containing DNA to be labeled.

My link is to an article about how that poll was silly.

Thanks for that. The conclusion was reasonable: that people, when confronted with a question formulated so as to be ridiculous, answer the more reasonable question they assume you meant to ask.

All of which is still to say that North Americans are in no danger of being protein deficient, vegan or non-vegan.

The topic of insects wasn't really brought up as a supplement for protein deficiency; rather, as a protein substitute for plants to reduce the collateral damage to other animals that occurs when raising and harvesting crops.

Agreed, that current farming methods are harmful ... both the despicable treatment of most animals destined for grocery stores, and the cultivation of feed crops for factory-farmed animals. There's a better solution than farming black soldier fly larvae (or any other insects) for human consumption, though.

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If you ask a question that is nuts when interpreted precisely, but is basically similar to a sensible question, people are going to answer the question they think you meant to ask. People are helpful that way, even when it isn’t helpful.

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Originally Posted by orthodoc

Horses, cattle, sheep, all have incisors, canines, and premolars. Their teeth are remarkably, astonishingly like ours. Incisors, canines, and premolars are used for cutting, tearing, and mashing (prior to grinding) ... of virtually any foodstuff, plants included.

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Originally Posted by blueboy56

I think I'd like to study your body more closely... Uh, for scientificical like stuff... yeah, that's it, for the good of the species. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Good for species morale, no doubt, but I think it's safe to day that my genetic contribution to the species is iffy at best. But I'm all for raising, ah, morale.

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Originally Posted by Clodfobble

On an individual level, it's an entirely different story. I know what works best for my one body, personally, and I don't give a shit what vegans or bacon-lovers or anyone else thinks I "should" be eating.

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Originally Posted by Clodfobble

I find a very weird dissonance in people who talk about what we (as a whole) are "meant" to eat due to evolution, as if evolution is akin to predestiny. The whole point of evolution is that if we have to change due to our environment, then we (as a whole) can do that. By definition we (as a whole) don't have to do what our ancestors did--if our environment suddenly makes it so that nothing but meat is available to eat, then we'll eat that, a bunch of us will die, but the ones whose metabolisms can manage it, if only barely, will have babies who are better at it, and in a few thousand years we'll be like lions scoffing at how we were never "meant" to eat produce.

On an individual level, it's an entirely different story. I know what works best for my one body, personally, and I don't give a shit what vegans or bacon-lovers or anyone else thinks I "should" be eating.

It only works as a rebuttal to any claims that we are not meant to eat meat.

If you take it further, and claim that we can, therefore we must, then it doesn't work.

It happens a lot in internet argument; an argument that only works as a response is erroneously used on its own.

Especially since it seems every new thing down the pike has been seized by a small percentage who are extremely militant about it. This is what created the standard saw about how do you know if someone is vegan?

Seems to be an increase in aggressive people willing to go balls to the wall over trivial shit, maybe encouraged by the internet. Not that the internet is a bad thing, but it's allowed psychopaths who kept a low profile, to find kindred spirits to assure them they are not antisocial, the rest of society just can't handle the truth.

From a local bookstore flyer about upcoming events.

Wednesday: Vegan Survival Guide
Thursday: Mike Huckabee

Nothing could better encapsulate this city I live in.

Thursday ~ Vegan Survival Guide to Austin;
.................Tip # 1 ~ Don't come back on Friday.