Would A Jedi be Vegan?

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We got a little, well, a lot geek for episode four. The idea of doing episode four brought up thoughts of Star Wars which lead us to other fandoms such as Doctor Who, Star Trek, Game of Thrones, and more. We wanted to go through some of our favorite areas of pop culture geekdom and examine the philosophies and diets of different races and characters.

We managed to jump around some (and got a bit deep in fandom) but we managed hit some interesting points along the way. Warning, things get weird...

STAR WARS

The topic that started this discussion is, "would a Jedi be vegan?" We fill that they would however, there are some holes we worked on filling. Our first set of evidence was the Jedi creed:

Jedi are the guardians of peace in the galaxy.

Jedi use their powers to defend and to protect.

Jedi respect all life, in any form.

Jedi serve others rather than ruling over them, for the good of the galaxy.

Jedi seek to improve themselves through knowledge and training.

We felt that the last three were great points about protecting all life. However, the area Dave got stuck on was since Jedi's view death as a part of life, does that mean they would consume something that died naturally and without suffering?

Hope pondered if Ahsoka Tano would switch to a meat substitute even though her species was carnivores.

Hope also questioned if the Jedi reaches a certain level, do they need to eat. However, David said that since the Sith are the "Jedi" of the dark side and Vader needs vitapaste for food then the Jedi must eat. However, we think the Sith would be meat eaters given they get their power from taking it from others. You can see some of this in the Sith creed.

Peace is a lie, there is only passion.

Through passion, I gain strength.

Through strength, I gain power.

Through power, I gain victory.

Through victory, my chains are broken.

The Force shall free me.

Dave proposed the question that if the Jedi were vegan and came across someone who wasn't would they intervene and "guide them"? Hope thought the Jedi would remain hands off and provided the logic behind it.

Hope realized... now... after recording... that she called the Solo kids, Jaina Solo and Jacen Solo, the names of the Wonder Twins, Zan and Jayna. She has been scolded and frozen in carbonite for her betrayal.

STAR TREK

Hope mentioned that Liam Hemsworth went vegan, which turned our talk to Star Trek. 

There is an episode where Spock has to eat meat to survive and is disgusted with himself. To which David remarked that the concept of meat consumption and our biological makeup leads to an animal based diet to being "illogical".

Also, we speculated that beings traveling the universe would have moved passed animals in their diet. However, what about a replicated turkey breast? We have this now with people working on "lab grown" meat that didn't require "mistreatment". Dave and Hope addressed this and talked about if we would consume a "lab grown" burger would we? (you'll need to listen to find out).

SCIENCE

Dave brought up the clips of Bill Nye and Richard Dawkins(1 | 2) and how they viewed a plant-based diet. This tends to frustrate us since they support it but don't make nor push the change. In addition to Bill and Richard Dave proposed that even the act of catch and release fishing is harmful as fish can still feel pain even though people still want to debate it:

fish can feel pain: according to “pain in fish” wiki

It has been concluded that bony fish possess nociceptors that are similar in function to those in mammals.The central nervous system (CNS) of fish contains a spinal cord, medulla oblongata, and the brain, divided into telencephalon, diencephalon, mesencephalon and cerebellum.

In regards on how a plant-based diet affect the mind Hope pointed out a prison experiment that tested diet and how it affects repeat offenders. Our research found, "At the time Mooreland took over the facility, California had a recidivism rate of 95%. During the seven years Mooreland had the inmates at Victor Valley on a vegetarian diet the recidivism rate at the prison went down to under 2%." (source)

FUTURAMA

We talked about the poppler episode of Futurama where the crew found a tasty food on a planet and started selling it. Once they realized the "food" was alive and sentient they changed their tune and tried to save them.

DOCTOR WHO

Being big Doctor Who (2005) fans Hope and Dave gushed over their favorite doctors and discussed their possible dietary choices. In the episode "The Two Doctors" the doctor changed to a plant-based diet for his companion but that wasn't mentioned again. We talked about how the Doctor is able to talk to horses, babies, the space whale, and remembers "Jim the Fish" with River. Because of this we suspect he may be vegetarian/vegan. However, Hope points out that the Doctor did eat fish fingers and custard but Dave contests that he was mid regeneration and was out of sorts.

GAME OF THRONES

There was a brief mention that Peter Dinklage follows a plant-based diet and is an avid spokesman for animal rights. Any food he eats on Game of Thrones is made from tofu or seitan.

COMICS

Hope mentioned that Beast Boy went vegetarian/vegan because he was able to turn into those animals and knew that they were able to feel pain and other emotions. According to the Teen Titans Wiki:

"Having transformed into most of the meat-producing animals, Beast Boy has lost his taste for meat and is now a vegetarian, which often gets him arguing with the others (especially Cyborg) because he constantly attempts to have the others adopt his culinary taste as well."

Mark Waid, in "Birthright", made Superman vegetarian when he gain the power to see the pain of animals. However, this was quickly reversed by DC. Hope, thought that Wonder Woman would be plant-based since she sees all life a sacred.

Dave, in attempt to get slammed with hate mail, pointed out that he thinks comics tend to cling to the meat eating idea since it's seen as manly and comics tend to market heavily to the male demographic.

GENERAL

A few off topic items came up where We discussed how we aren't part of the food chain but rather removed from it. In addition, humans have caused animal extinction faster than they would have naturally.

We took some time while talking about Neil Gaiman about his comments on honey and our views on the subject.

FOLLOW UP

What do you guys think? Would the Jedi or the Doctor be vegan? Know any plant-based superheros we didn't mention? Let us know on Facebook, Twitter, or Tumblr.