PETA wants to make Mars a "Vegan Planet."

[TheMightyFavog]

http://jalopnik.com/5974871/peta-wants-elon-musk-to-make-mars-a-vegan-planet

Elon Musk wants to take people to Mars. He's made no bones about it. That's really cool.

Now PETA, yes, the animal people, are imploring the Tesla and SpaceX founder to make sure that Mars is a "Vegan" planet. When we colonize it they want it to be totally animal byporduct free.

A friend of mine who blogs about anime said that there once was an anime series called Gundam AGE. Its bad guys were folks from Earth who colonized Mars. Who called themselves (wait for it...) Vegans. (Pronounced Vay-gun)

[ohiosmith]

1. Only if they all promise to go there!

[Gormy Cuss]

2. Martian colonists would be vegans, not Vegans.

Vegans are from Vega.

[backscatter712]

3. One thing about living in space: Meat will be SCARCE!

Last edited Thu Jan 10, 2013, 08:48 PM - Edit history (1)

Think about it. You need lots of land, water, a huge supply of food, so you can keep you herd of meat animals, so that you can kill some of them and eat them. Compared to growing plants to eat, raising animals is incredibly inefficient.

With chicken, it's a little easier - you need a coop, a supply of water and food, and so on.

If you're talking about doing things in space, some things are invariably true. Weight is at a premium, as is water, and food is either packets that you bring along, that could probably last you a few months, or maybe a few years if you've got a lot of storage and a huge amount of money for it.

For a manned expedition to Mars, the explorers are going to be vegan by necessity. While the crew of the ISS might have dehydrated Beef Stroganof in the pantry, that's possible because they're in low earth orbit, and they get regular supply runs from Progress ships, Dragons & the like.

Once you get into your Mars ship and boost out of Earth orbit on the months-long voyage to Mars, you survive on what you've got with you. And you'll need to survive for a couple of years, roughly. So how are they going to do it? They can't bring enough freeze-dried Beef Stroganof for that long of a journey, so they'll have to have a hydroponics bay and grow their food as they go. And the ship won't even have enough room for a chicken coop.

Maybe in a few centuries, after mankind has found a way past these technological limitations, terraformed Mars, and made enough real-estate on the Red Planet suitable for pastures and grazing, meat may become viable again. Until then, I don't see it happening very often. Maybe once in a while for billionaire rich snobs.

[Nye Bevan]

4. That will ensure that the martians will not eat the human explorers and settlers.

PETA is actually being pretty smart, for once.

[dlwickham]

5. I know others will agree with me when I say

F**k PETA

they've done more to hurt the animal rights movement than any other organization

[duffyduff]

8. They aren't even about animals anyway.

It's all about forcing a vegan lifestyle on everybody else, and they hide that and the fact they don't want any animal domestication. Our lives would be far poorer if these people ran the show.

[bluestate10]

10. Extremism bothers me, whether it is from PETA of the religious right.

Unfortunately, some people can't accept the idea of self determination.

[Posteritatis]

11. At this point they're just evangelical misanthropes. (nt)

[Bosonic]

6. Probably a moot point

By the time a human steps foot onto Mars, I expect 3D-printed/vat grown meat will be readily available, and it will be almost certainly more resource/space efficient than livestock which makes it very attractive for space mission/colonies...

[duffyduff]

7. Every member of PETA can go there

Goodbye and good riddance.

[Glassunion]

9. Screw that, so far away from home... I would need comfort food.

I'm bringing short ribs.

[bluestate10]

13. I will bring roasted chicken if you promise to share. nt

[Glassunion]

15. Hell yeah!!!

My last batch getting started... Warning, I use about a quart of red wine in my short ribs. Some of it makes it into the braise.

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

12. So no cannibals on the exploratory team? nt

[longship]

26. Damnit! Sick and tired of all these astronaut cannibal rumors!

Everybody knows that NASA has the problem relatively well in hand these days.


(And a tip of the hat to the Monty Python troup.)

[whatchamacallit]

14. Here's a list of "ignorant assholes" who support PETA

http://www.looktothestars.org/charity/peta

Y'all act like freepers sometimes...

[RebelOne]

16. I am one of those "ignorant assholes."

I am a vegetarian and support PETA.

[whatchamacallit]

17. Me too

[LiberalElite]

18. That's the best insult you can do?

I'm a vegetarian AND longtime animal rights activist and PETA embarasses me sometimes. They want the press coverage for certain issues apparently to the point where they don't care how stupid they look. And it works every time - they get the publicity and they look stupid. How many people really seriously discuss the issue thus publicized? I bet not many. PETA once wanted a town in New York State by the name of Fishkill, to change its name for obvious reasons. I have to wonder how much these outlandish crusades help the cause.

[whatchamacallit]

21. Sure you are, Sport... n/t

[Chiyo-chichi]

19. I thought Mars was the red meat planet.

[panader0]

20. Why is vegan pronounced Vay-gun?

Are vegetables Vaygtables? Why not Vee-gun?
I married a vegetarian (back before vegans) in '71 or '72. She got me on board for a while (until the divorce).

[muriel_volestrangler]

23. It is pronounced vee-gun

The most common pronunciation of vegan is (vēˈgən), with a long e in the first syllable and a hard g as in goat. In our 2004 survey, this was the preferred pronunciation of 68 percent of the Usage Panel. Other acceptable pronunciations include (vāˈgən), which rhymes with pagan, the pronunciation of 18 percent of the Panel, and (vĕjˈən), which rhymes with hedge in, the pronunciation of 14 percent of the Panel.

vegan. (2005). In The American Heritage Guide to Contemporary Usage and Style

'Vay-gun' is for the adjective 'Vegan', meaning "Of or relating to the star Vega, or the (imagined) inhabitants of its solar system". Of course, if the pronunciation was kept the same as 'vegetable', it would be 'vehdj-un'.

And vegans have been around since 1944, when D. Watson founded 'Vegan News'.

[TheMightyFavog]

25. That's the way they pronounced "Vegan" in the anime my friend referenced.

I have no idea why the writers of that anime series decided to call a bunch of humans colonizing Mars, "Vegans." Maybe it's som japanese thing that got lost in Translation, maybe they thought it sounded cool, I don't know.

[LeftInTX]

22. Can we just send the Tea Party up there instead?

Right now, this minute.

I know we don't have the technology and they would run out of fuel and oxygen after a few weeks.....

[bobclark86]

24. PETA killing 95 percent of their animals they take in...

is like the NRA endorsing a white guy who signed an assault weapons ban over black guy who only talked about it while letting people carry guns in national parks.

Both are dipshits.