So, the big question isn't why you do it. Isn't "what does tofu taste like, styrofoam or paper?". It isn't how you manage.

The big question is, is placenta vegan?

I mean, really. I am speaking to those who are the "ethical" vegan type. Who don't participate in the ritualized factory farming system which tortures then kills wee creatures. To the morrisey kids. (side note to steph-I listened to some smiths today and missed you! haha) It's the death, suffering, and hate you're trying to keep out of your diet, right? So...

Placenta.

It's produced by a joyful moment. It doesn't hurt. It kills nothing. It isn't dead. It also could be naturally produced by free roaming creatures. It is a simple side effect of what some would refer to as "a little miracle bundle from god".

To take it a step further, let's say my acreage has some wild cattle. I notice one is having a calf and I run to help, and then the calf is born and the placenta comes out and the cow and child wander away to continue living freely in cow heaven (hmmm...could they actually survive without the cultivation of people? Or would they starve like they do in India? That's another story.) My question is, can I eat that placenta? If I'm vegan?

Can I eat a section of leg that my friend has cut off of himself, and offered to me? Can I cannibalize someone who is willing?

Or, is it just that it is an animal product? Is that the reason? Because I know from growing up in farmland that without animal waste there's no plants. Fertilizer. So...ALL food that is grown organically uses animal waste fertilizer. This means that the carrots we eat are grown only by using animals and their products to nurture them. Meaning that big farms rely on factory farmed animal wastes in order to grow. Meaning that even if it's local, organic, etc, some animal somewhere was robbed of its precious fewmets to make food for you to eat, which means it was confined, so that the fewmets could be obtained. Which kind of rubs me wrong in the logic center when I start thinking about this stuff.

I have very vague notions about all this. It somehow feels wrong to me. But I've eaten placenta and it wasn't very good. So if it's just a matter of taste, I can understand.

And what about my friend's thigh slice? I need to know. That one just seems, well, difficult. If it's freely offered? Hmmm. (I would eat it anyway, but I'm not vegan. I'm fruitarian.)

Anyone who can help me, please jump in.