Vegans, would you eat truffles?

I am a vegan. My friend is not. He is really curious about this question: Would vegans eat truffles (the mushrooms) found by pigs? I told him my personal answer (no), but he isn't satisfied by that. He wants to see what other vegans have to say, and I promised him, okay, I will ask for you on my forum!

Thanks!

Purple, I would also have to say no...besides the fact that they use pigs to locate those mushrooms, they are extremely expensive!!  I'd rather go for a cheaper variety that's just as tasty and doesn't require the use of animals  :)

I'm not sure that Truffles are usually found by pigs anymore.  I think the preferred method is dogs now because the pigs eat the truffles.  Not that the animal used is really relevant to your question or anything.

Original Post by kisteel:

I'm not sure that Truffles are usually found by pigs anymore.  I think the preferred method is dogs now because the pigs eat the truffles.  Not that the animal used is really relevant to your question or anything.

 I'm a vegan with no conscience about using animals for or to help produce food.  The idea that using a pig or dog for the purpose of locating a truffle as exploitation is a stretch to me.  The farmer owns the hog, the farmer feeds and houses that hog, the farmer asks for a favor in return.  Is that exploitation or symbiotic?  I say the latter.

The gas engine was invented ~100 years ago.  Today we use deisel powered tractors to plow the fields, plant the seeds, and harvest the food.  Before that we used horses and mules.  Which is the lesser of two evils... using a machine that pollutes our air and water supplies, or using a mule and horse?

Pick your poison.

I am not a vegan, and I'm not trying to be a smartypants, but I'm curious . . . if you object to eating mushrooms found by pigs, do you object to every form of animal "labor"? Such as seeing eye dogs, police dogs, horses that draw carriages (or plows as mentioned above), animals in the movies?

I am opposed to the use of animals for all purposes... though it's not like I'm going to protest seeing eye dogs. I think there are more pressing issues. Though I HATE seeing animals in movies...

I heard they killed like 6 dogs and 7 cats to film Milo and Otis.. not sure how true that is, and thankfully today that wouldn't happen (I think!)

I love the more adult animal movies.  Such as White Fang.  I've always seen "No animals were harmed during the filming..."   I couldn't imagine the bad PR if they were.

I have to ask my fellow vegans though..  If you were born in the 1800's before the gasoline engine, would it be OK to eat produce knowing a mule pulled the plow?  Should everyone have farmed there own food?

I am a vegan, and I don't want animals harmed.  But, opposition to the use of animals to perform certain tasks seems extreme.  Some vegans are opposed to honey because it exploits the bee and steals their (surplus) food.  While I haven't used honey after discovering Agave Nectar, I don't see a problem with it.  And now truffles?  I've never eaten a truffle, but would like to try it someday.

Dogs have been bread for a long time to perform certain tasks.  Herding dogs like to herd.  Hunting dogs do what they do.  If they don't get to do those things that are now natural to them, they can get distressed.  You can't simply throw a switch and turn these instincts off because you don't agree with it.

Thanks for your replies everyone! 

I'd just like to respond about why I personally think raising pigs to find truffles is not right-- I'm not merely looking at the animal welfare part of it, because I'm sure they live a happy life in general, better than the ones killed for food, but I'm opposed to it for environmental reasons. I don't believe in raising animals for anything if we don't have to, simply because it's a less efficient way of getting food to eat.

Original Post by acerria:

I am not a vegan, and I'm not trying to be a smartypants, but I'm curious . . . if you object to eating mushrooms found by pigs, do you object to every form of animal "labor"? Such as seeing eye dogs, police dogs, horses that draw carriages (or plows as mentioned above), animals in the movies?

I object to horse and carriages. These animals are not meant to be in a city. They are often mistreated and forced to work through extreme heat and labor conditions.

i agree with you skinnyogi

So like, if a farm decided to go "back to its roots" and start using oxen to plow again, you would refuse to eat the resultant crop?

And truffles are a "gourmet" product. I know there are a billion definitions of gourmet, but I take it to mean something the average person doesn't eat that often, and something that is meant to be savored for its own distinct nuances of flavor. It's not like 300 million Americans are gobbling down pounds and pounds of this stuff each year and threatening the lives of hundreds of thousands of pigs and depleting the world's truffle resource

It's a treat, and I'd say quite a benign one for the vegan gourmet. I mean, think about how foie gras is made. Or bird's nest, where if blood is found in the birdspit they consider it more "vital". So they train pigs and dogs to find a food, for which the animal is also awarded. Oh the inhumanity!

On another note:

Do you think it's unethical to use bloodhounds to find missing people? I could be really bleeding-heart mean and say "find missing children", but we'll say people. Is that an unfair exploitation of the dog's rights?

I looked up the methods of training a truffle-dog (boredom and nagging curiousity for insignificant things drive me), and honestly, it's a glorified game of fetch. They begin by teaching the dog to fetch, actually. Then they add some smelly cheese. Then they hide the smelly cheese. Then they hide a truffle. Mental canine anguish, right there.

Original Post by gpat919:

Original Post by kisteel:

I'm not sure that Truffles are usually found by pigs anymore.  I think the preferred method is dogs now because the pigs eat the truffles.  Not that the animal used is really relevant to your question or anything.

 I'm a vegan with no conscience about using animals for or to help produce food.  The idea that using a pig or dog for the purpose of locating a truffle as exploitation is a stretch to me.  The farmer owns the hog, the farmer feeds and houses that hog, the farmer asks for a favor in return.  Is that exploitation or symbiotic?  I say the latter.

The gas engine was invented ~100 years ago.  Today we use deisel powered tractors to plow the fields, plant the seeds, and harvest the food.  Before that we used horses and mules.  Which is the lesser of two evils... using a machine that pollutes our air and water supplies, or using a mule and horse?

Pick your poison.

I liked this answer.

It's not merely about how the animals are treated. Even if the animals are treated great, they still take up an IMMENSE amount of unnecessary food and resources which is horrible for the environment. Just to throw out a fact-- 70% of the grain raised in the U.S. goes to feeding livestock. How ridiculous is that? Look up the environmental impact that raising livestock has had on the earth. The UN declared in 2006 that it was one of the TOP causes of global warming, more so than transportation all put together. The UN is not even a vegetarian/vegan organization!! They have no reason to try to promote this. 

BUT it all depends. If we lived hundreds of years ago when raising animals was THE MOST efficient way of raising crops, then it is a different story for me at least. I would NOT object if raising animals for labor was the smart and sustainable way of doing things.  

I think often that vegans or vegetarians are misunderstood merely as a bunch of animal lovers, and while I do like animals quite a bit, that's not WHY I do what I do. 

Original Post by purpleorchid89:

Just to throw out a fact-- 70% of the grain raised in the U.S. goes to feeding livestock. How ridiculous is that? Look up the environmental impact that raising livestock has had on the earth.

 A super-high percentage of animals consuming that grain are used directly for human consumption (meat or dairy).  We're talking about using a select few animals for smelling fungi so the people harvesting these plants know where to dig.

But the problem you're referring to is directly related to the over-population of humans on Earth.  Not only are we consuming meat 3 meals a day (compared to eating meat once a day 100 years ago), we are also using record amounts of water, chemical fertilizers, and such to grow these grain.  We are running out of usable water.

I'm going to stir a hornets nest here, but I'd like to point out another thing that we don't like to think about.  People are starving to death in third-world countries.  The US ships a lot of grain to feed these people.  This is great that we do this.  BUT...  the people we save grow up to have more and more children.  We have to feed these children AND adults.  Which makes the problem explode exponentially with each generation!

Likewise, the population in modernized countries are exploding, too.  This means more urban sprawl, more meat we need to harvest.  More grains need to be grown to feed that livestock (and more veggies too, as we're not carnivores).

I don't know what the right answer is here.  I don't know if there is a "right answer" at all.  I'm not saying we should stop feeding the starving children.  What a horrible thought!!  But, doing so also contributes to the problem in a very significant way.

If you want to bring up the environment and the vast amount of resources we humans consume, then we should also discuss population control.