Insimenator.org

If you, like you Sim could, plant a meat plant and eat something from it, would you consider it vegetarian or not? I was discussing this with my mother earlier and it was an odd thought question that came up. Opinions?  ;D

Not really an odd question considering what I have heard in my lifetime.  ;D

Well, it depends on two questions:

Which part of the meat plant will you eat as a vegetarian?

If a plant can grow a type of meat, will you eat the meat the plant grew?

I think I would be wondering more about how meat could come from a plant...  :-\
Now, if the plant could grow chocolate cake instead... then I would be too preoccupied with eating to bother with the how or why or what... ;D

Haha, I totally agree, theraven.

Chaavik; Well, say you have a steak plant, and you ate the steak off the plant. Since it grew from a plant and didn't come from an animal....specifically....it would be vegetarian. BUT it's steak....I guess it kinda goes along with the cowplant from TS2. Plant or animal?  ;D

I imagine that depends on why you are a vegetarian. If you are a weedy vegetarian because you don't care for the taste of meat for some reason, then this wouldn't really help. If you do so because you believe that the collection of meat entails some kind of intolerable cruelty, then it would. I personally eat meat because it is necessary to my survival, so it makes no difference to me where it comes from. I am not even picky about how I get regular meat.

That is a good point. I am a vegetarian because of my belief of the cruelty aspect of it, so if it's grown on a plant, then it's not cruel. Good observation   :D

What if the meat plant had a face... what then? What if it had feelings? What if all plants has feelings? Plants are alive too. What if they scream in such a pitch we can't hear when they're cut down or picked up with the root? What then? Would you eat a meat plant if it had a face, had feelings, and The questions are endless.

We humans do have a choice. But most (other) animals are, should we say, hardcoded to follow their instincts. Which often involves eating other animals down the foodchain. I'm trying to imagine a lion living off plants and trees, or settle down in a cave swearing to never hunt down another animal ever again. I can't really see that picture (though it would have been a fun animation movie ;)). Even most insects and some microorganisms eat meat. It's a part of the life cycle.

We humans are both at the top of the foodchain, somewhere in the middle, and even all the way down in some cases. We can eat both plants and meat, and often opt for a combination. In fact, in most cases we can eat whatever we feel like eating. Most animals don't even have a choice. Meat, or die. That's the way nature is.

We humans act worse than any other animals do. We produce more food than we need, while other people or even animals starve. We take over nature, so that the natural flora and animal life disappears little by little. I'd say that our behavior is in fact much worse than anything.

As a vegetarian your food still comes from crops and other grown food, from a place that a long time ago maybe was an idyllic place full of animals and natural plant life. This is what you really eat when you're a vegetarian. Ever thought about that?
Besides - you're still living in a city that rose up from the ashes of a beautiful forest, and when driving your car, or even the bus, you are a part of the pollution of the air. By throwing away your garbage you're a part of the pollution of the sea and Earth. And by buying a book or even the paper to the shopping list you take to the store, you're still a part of chopping down the trees that gives the Earth oxygen.

So does it really matter if you eat plants or meat? You're still a part of the big scary picture.

Of course, a vegetarian lifestyle is slightly better to the environment than eating meat. So is biking, or recyciling and buy recycled stuff. But in the big whole, you're still part of everything that is wrong with the human lifestyle, even if you feel slightly better doing "your share" of keeping the Earth somewhat livable.

We humans are already destroying the world around us. I'm sorry to say, but whether we eat meat or vegetables, it's still just a tiny part of the great whole.

Ever thought about that?

Sorry - going all philosophical here...  :rolleyes:

Oh geeze, theraven, now I feel like an all around horrible person...and species...(well actually, that species part isn't new) XD I'm gonna go make me a mud hut and chew on rocks for all of eternity. Come my animal brethren, we shall live in harmony as we did thousands of years ago!

While you do that, I'm going to follow my animal nature and snack on what pleases me. Come, lunch meat and lettuce and bread, jump onto my plate so that I may feed myself on your offerings! NOMNOMNOM!!

Actually, at this point, paper is pretty much an ecologically friendly alternative. While it is made of dead trees, it is made of dead trees we planted for that purpose in the first place, and much of what is used as paper is scrap wood unsuitable for use as lumber anyway, which is why it is pulped for paper.

Then again, there is always the alternative of buying and using recycled paper products, if you are wanting to reduce the amount of trees chopped for paper.

Doesn't matter whether you reduce the trees chopped for wood or not, since the trees are specifically grown TO be chopped for wood. Although recycling paper has its uses, reducing the amount of trees chopped is not one of them. I'm pretty sure by now they have genetically modified trees with hormone treatment specifically to grow to be large and choppable very quickly, so we can chop them and start the cycle anew.

And they're replanted right after in a place specifically designated to grow and chop these trees. This, at least, isn't killing the rainforest and all the poor little critters in it

Actually it's been done in The Lion King (Simba lived on insects until adulthood w/Timon and Pumbaa)...also Finding Nemo (sharks that have sworn off of fish) & Dreamworks Sharktales (Lenny the vegetarian shark /killer whale? ) & omg I'm going to go watch a grown-up movie now ;D.

By the way isn't the meat plant the result some type of genetic engineering experiment? If so it's possible that it has the DNA of animals (a vegans nightmare I suppose).

Actually some agricultural scientists have (controversially) quietly been doing that for years in rl to make plants more resistant to disease and infestation.  At last check they were using pig DNA to grow better corn.

I meant in real life, of course ;)
Animation movies are not real life, though I admit I did forget about Simba...

And it was just a thought experiment, really. What I did mean, is that we humans are manipulating nature to our own liking, possibly destroying the Earth and all natural life in the process. And if we do try to do something about it eventually, it's really too late because it has already gone far out of control. Recycling might help a tiny bit, but there is still a ton of trash out there that isn't sorted. The paper thing - we did chop down the forest, plant the new trees, possibly destroying the natural life in the process. We're still destroying rain forest, which is one of the main oxygen resources in the world, besides the ocean.

And we're manipulating nature all the time, making animals and plants that aren't natural, and might end up to be more harmful than good.
Like "race dogs". They aren't natural. They're bred to have qualities we humans want in them. But they wouldn't stand a chance against a real wolf, just because they've got too short legs, no fur, too much fur to see anything, or even serious health problems. Just because some humans decided they wanted a cute pet dog. That's just one example. There are plenty more. .

I'm pretty much convinced the actions of the human race will some day lead to our own extinction (if nothing beats us to it, of course). Maybe not in the next couple of decades, or even centuries, but one day...  
1explode

Well it's true that the agricultural experiments had an effect.  In the special I watched (PBS some years ago) bugs that ate the improved plants went through changes that the scientists hadn't anticipated causing them to have issues with healthier, more resilient insects that they had to take desperate measures to eradicate to avoid them mixing with "normal" insects.

My first thought at the time though was how this experimentation breaks several religions (sacred beliefs) about not having anything to do with pigs.   The study had a lot of information that goes along the lines of what you're talking about i.e., man vs nature and the possible consequences.

We're making superbugs by trying to make them go away. We're making food that might be a danger to our health by trying to make more healthy food. We're doing all kinds of stuff that will sooner or later prove harmful to ourselves. We're probably creating our own allergies, too. I don't think the earliest humans had pollen allergy. That's something that has come more recently. Cancer is a huge problem too, and we know a lot of the reasons which are most likely our own fault.

Human nature - oh, my.

I have a feeling evolution decided to go backwards somewhere along the line. We're making ourself more stupid, harming ourselves, while trying to ignore it all in the process.

I agree with you wholeheartedly. It's the reason I'd rather be around animals than people. As you said, this race is going to cause the demise of not only our own, but the entire planet. And I don't know if you mentioned overpopulation or not, but that's part of it too. Too many people, and not enough resources to take care of all of us, so we need to make more and more, faster, thus causing what you have mentioned...

That is why there is such a thing as birth control, but as we've all seen from the Dugger family, not everyone believes in taking it easy upon the finite resources this planet has to offer... Then again, there are those that Darwin out, but I wish some of them had done it before breeding and passing the stupid gene onto their offspring.

My thoughts exactly. I've been saying that someone should slip some birth control into Michelle's water or SOMETHING.... and her kids, too. Say they each have huge families. That could be 400 grandchildren  :eek: That many people are unneeded.

And Darwinism is the source of much of my darker amusement. The Darwin awards are just hilarious. It's amazing how incredibly dim some people can be and I'm ashamed to be of the same species....