We've all met a vegetarian in our time.
For many of us, it's hard to believe that anyone can completely cut out meat from their diet. Like, have you never tried steak man? It's lit.
However, an expert has claimed that it is actually impossible to be a vegetarian.
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Andrew Smith, the Assistant Professor of English and Philosophy at Drexel University, has said that no matter what you eat, even if it is plant based, will contain animal remains - thus making you a meat eater.
"Plants acquire nutrients from the soil, which is composed, among other things, of decayed plant and animal remains. So even those who assume they subsist solely on a plant-based diet actually eat animal remains as well. This is why it's impossible to be a vegetarian," Andrew said in his book A Critique of the Moral Defense of Vegetarianism.
May as well have a cheeseburger then, eh?
Andrew is not simply going in on vegetarians for the sake of it, he is actually one himself. He's also 'nearly vegan', which sounds an awful lot like one of those people who eats a carrot for the sake of a Twitter post that includes #Vegan.
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"For the record, I've been a 'vegetarian' for about 20 years and nearly 'vegan' for six. I'm not opposed to these eating practices. That isn't my point. But I do think that many 'vegetarians' and 'vegans' could stand to pay closer attention to the experiences of the beings who we make our food. For example, many vegetarians cite the sentience of animals as a reason to abstain from eating them. But there's good reason to believe that plants are sentient, too. In other words, they're acutely aware of and responsive to their surroundings, and they respond, in kind, to both pleasant and unpleasant experiences," he wrote in his book.
Anyway, I'm off for a KFC.
Words by Mark McGowan
Topics: Vegetarian, Vegan