Why would Vulcans be vegetarian in an era with replicators?

Question

Most vegetarians on Earth abstain from meat because of the treatment of animals as a result of mass proceessing. However in a universe with replicators, there is no ill treatment. A replicator simply aligns the molecules in such a way as to create a version of the food.

No animals were harmed in the replication of this cheese burger.

The proliferation of replicator technology has probably made the use of real livestock all but extinct. Additionally given the nutritional advantage of meats being a complete protein, it doesn't seem logical to arbitrarily deny that source of food.

Why are Vulcans (or anyone) vegetarians in the Star Trek universe?

Answer 1

Pre-continuity split, 'Star Trek' (2009), Vulcans were culturally vegetarians. This was not a religious choice; it was a cultural one. The move toward a vegan lifestyle was part of their overall tenet of abstaining from acts of violence and the embrace of logic as a preeminent lifestyle.

• The leader and creator of the logical tenets Surak (as presented in Diane Duane's Spock's World) which states: "Ideally, do no harm... As far as possible, do not kill. Can you return life to what you kill?"

• While Spock was seen to eat meat when he was trapped with Zarabeth, 5,000 years in the past in the TOS episode, All Our Yesterdays, his choices for food were both limited and in this case, it was logical that he eat meat if he were to survive.

• He indicated there was a change in his mental state when processed into the past, which might have accounted for his desire to eat meat and enjoy it. It was mentioned the device would transform the participants into being suited for survival in the periods they were sent to.

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As far as replicated meat goes, I suspect each culture's approach to the status of eating meat would be based on how or why that culture chooses not to eat meat in the first place.

• Many of Earth's religious cultures forbade the eating of certain meats because they were potentially unclean or dangerous if not properly cooked. After a time, the reason may be lost to antiquity and simply be part of the religion.

• If a space-faring culture found itself presented with meat that was made from the replicator's transformation of biomass, free of contaminants, it would have to decide if this would violate its tenets of meat consumption and the rationales for not eating meat in the first place.

• If human religions were any indication, I would suspect religious reasons for not eating meat would continue even in an era where meat was nothing more than a synthetically created, mathematically modeled, series of constructed proteins designed to resemble meat.

Answer 2

In people who have been long-term vegetarians studies have found that they actually lose the ability to digest meat - eating meat will then give them no nutrition, and can cause some mild to moderate gastrointestinal issues.

It is certainly possible that, after centuries of dietary restrictions, Vulcans as a species are generally unable to tolerate meat in their diet, or are unable to get much nutrition from it. It would therefore be very logical to abstain from meat when practical.

Answer 3

Probably for the same reason people wouldn't eat human meat even if it were to be produced, say, by cell cloning and other non-violent methods. Culture and tradition matters. I suppose, given no other choice for nutrition, they (vulcans) would eat meat - as confirmed in other answer - but in the presence of replicators there's ample choice of culturally appropriate food, so it makes sense to prefer it. Having preferences does not contradict logic per se - you can not eat all food at once, so you have to choose which food you eat, and your culture is as good base for the choice as any.

Answer 4

Maybe they just don't like meat ?

I mean, there's no ethic, nutrition, or health reason prohibiting me from eating, say, Natto , I just find it revolting. For others, it's a delicacy.

I don't find it too unlikely that there can be a culture, especially an alien one, that simply doesn't find meat or animal products appetizing.

Answer 5

In DS9 it was implied that replicated food wasn't designed, rather real food was cooked, then scanned into the computer as a pattern. Then anytime that food was replicated, it was duplicating the original, non-replicated version. So for a Vulcan to eat replicated meat, this means some animal needed to die, which still goes against their desire to not kill for food.

Answer 6

Most vegetarians on Earth abstain from meat because of the treatment of animals as a result of mass proceessing

While I think this is true, it is not the only reason for being a vegetarian. Some are because of religious beliefs, that eating animals is wrong. This comes from the argument that he life is in the blood - nothing to do with the treatment. So I can see see that there would be religious reasons for still abstaining. And because the Vulcans are very "religious", that would make sense.

Answer 7

The replicator gives you the food you want, and most people probably order their traditional foods. It is safe to say the replicator produces nutritionally enhanced food and that it makes food that tastes very good.

So most Vulcans would continue to eat their traditional foods, and if they could benefit from more amino acids, the replicator just adds amino acids.

Two more issues, the show has never shown a Vulcan refusing a replicator hamburger, they might be willing to eat them in the right circumstances. Also, their physiology might not benefit from more meat. As others have touched on, they might have lost some ability to digest meat and their bodies might not really need meat anyway.

Answer 8

The "nutritional advantage" of meat may be more protein and iron but besides that there are also disadvantages: High cholesterol, saturated fats, hormones and -presuming factory meat is used- antibiotics and other medication. Not exactly healthy. But the "lack" of protein by not consuming meat can be easily corrected, think of beans for example. (Humans nowadays in the western world consume twice as much protein as they'd need to, by the way.) A lack of protein is quite hard to achieve, as long as you eat enough.

Plus, we're talking about Vulcans here. Sure, they're humanoid but do we know they have the same dietary requirements as we do? Vulcan blood is not based on iron, but copper which means there's no need to eat meat for the iron. Which is one "argument" why some humans refuse to be vegetarian.

If you'd like a non-health-reason, the tradition-and-taste seems quite reasonable. But it might also be ethical: I know vegans who don't eat soy-yogurt because the cultures which it is made with were originally (years ago) taken from cow's milk. It is following the principles very strictly. (Which is the same with Vulcans and tradition. Not necessary logical, if you'd ask me...)