GLT — the stuff about the replicated meat reminds me somehow of how omnivores say accusingly to veg*ns, “But you eat all that FAKE meat stuff!” Like, okay, why not just go ahead & eat the real thing, since you’re obviously craving it… ? I am so not up to speed on anything Trek (like I said, I was a pretty casual viewer — though more of TNG, although that was in high school in the early ’90s!), but I wonder if there’s something to be dug up re: aliens that eat meat (like the Klingons) & (perceived) masculinity/aggressiveness/etc. & race? Last year @ WisCon there was a panel on mixed-race characters in SF/F (which I suggested, hee) & some of the discussion centered on how alien races are often a metaphor for race. Eh, like I said, I am so not versed in Trek-stuff, but it’s a thought that could be applied to other works that feature alien races that are either vigorously veg or vigorously carnivorous too.

Heather — ooh, interesting. Am I right in guessing perhaps that was a Think Galactic book? Sounds like it would be a great discussion.

Rift — Are you a WisCon person? Perhaps you & Heather & I know each other, heh. Anyway — I may have to check out the Traviss, although her name is pinging a warning bell in my mind & I don’t remember why. But that series sounds really interesting. I’ve read “Rachel in Love” but it was a few years ago & I don’t remember much aside from “chimp w/girl brain,” heh. I should reread.

& as far as the “hippy-dippy” books — hm. I think maybe Sally Miller Gearhart’s The Wanderground was one of them? (in trying to google that, I see that apparently Joan Slonczewski’s A Door into Ocean features a vegan!) Also, is the future society in Marge Piercy’s Woman on the Edge of Time vegetarian? I can’t remember, augh. I was pretty steeped in feminist sf/f academically for a while (I wrote a master’s dissertation on it, hee), but my brain has lost the titles.

(& it’s not the feminist content that made me call them “hippy-dippy” — it’s just they seemed so dated, & also I think I have a limited tolerance for earth-mother-type stuff, like I don’t really think women have a closer connection to the earth b/c women are somehow inherently nature-linked, etc.)

The Wess’har War series by Karen Traviss has aliens who are vegan for ethical and environmental reasons and this is an important part of the story line. The fourth book in the series was short listed for the Tiptree award in 2006. I highly recommend!!

Speaking of feminist sf, I recently finished Daughters of Earth: Feminist Science Fiction in the 20th Century. A story by Pat Murphy, “Rachel in Love” touched on some animal rights themes because the main character is a chimp with a human girl brain. I would be interested in the “hippy-dippy” books you researched, if you care to list them?

Thanks!

Regarding Star Trek, I think the creators sometimes forget that they condemned real-meat-eating early in The Next Generation and that Vulcans are vegans and other veg-positive settings, because they don’t think it’s important. I wouldn’t be surprised if Sisko’s father’s restaurant uses real shellfish and ooooh, it’s all gourmet because it’s not replicated. But I can’t picture Earth in the Trekiverse slaughtering mammals for flesh. (But apparently it does happen now and then according to what O’brien said.)

That early TNG episode involved a race of aliens that would only eat real, freshly-slaughtered animals. They were shocked and horrified when Riker explained that the meat they saw the Enterprise crew eating was all replicated and that humans no longer used animals for food. One of the aliens said it was “barbaric!” which I do believe was meant to be humorously ironic because killing is obviously more barbaric than replicating. But the reaction of many omnivores to the idea of in vitro meat is disturbingly similar. Anyway, those aliens were denied Federation membership because they couldn’t control themselves to the extent of not murdering and eating delegates of other alien races while aboard the Federation flagship. However, I’m sure the Klingons still use real Targ meat all the time, and many Starfleet officers have been shown eating Klingon gagh, which is live worms. Because otherwise they would be wimping out!

However, he later discovers that the Eloi are actually only one half of the evolutionary story – the other half being the laboring carnivorous Morlocks of the underground. In an ironic lesson in sustainability, the narrator realizes that it is the Morlocks that maintain the fruit-filled food supply of the Eloi, and the Eloi’s flesh that maintain the food supply of the Morlocks.

While the frugivorous diet is here associated with a frail laziness, Well’s makes a distinct contrast to the “cannibalistic” carnivorous diet of the Morlocks, which he considered to be an ultimate regression of humanity.