Is synthetic milk harvested from genetically modified yeast "vegan"?

I believe anything that doesn’t have a nervous system and/or brain is considered fair game for vegans. Although, there’s some exceptions like oysters and the like being not considered valid vegan foods.

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And this is why non-vegans infer they are being judged (whether they really are or not)-- veganism is a moral choice, there is no health benefit to wearing polyester instead of wool.

I can respect the idea of veganism, but I question the idea of technology providing alternatives that are better in terms of environmental impact or health. The evidence that ultra-processed foods contribute to health problems has been a big issue lately. Do I really want to be drinking “milk” produced in a factory if I can get it from a small sustainable and humane local dairy? I know it’s not an option for most people, but if it is I see no problem.

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One would assume that it is dairy according to kashrut under the principle that one should avoid the appearance of violation as well as the actual violation.

edited to add: In the same way that you can’t mix dairy and chicken despite the fact that there is no chance that you are offending the cow by you are eating the calf and the milk she made to to feed it.

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Yes–will happily switch. I’ve been a vegetarian for most of my life and would like to lower the impact of my milk consumption on animals and the environment.

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There was a short story I read years ago about a company introducing an a lab grown meat that became wildly popular until someone determined that it was actually synthetic human meat. Much confusion ensued.

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Probably “The food of the Gods” by Arthur C Clarke.

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Isn’t the point of proofing then baking bread to let the yeast work at raising the bread to a certain point then quickly killing them all off at the right moment in the oven? It seems like cruelty at the level of boiling a lobster alive. I think you’d need to consider single-celled organisms as not in scope for cruelty concerns to eat yeast-based bread.

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Maybe, but they’d likely be dead within an hour or so or gone into hibernation because they’ve finished off most of the sugars available to eat, if one was going to get upset about that, I hope they also avoid antibiotics, as you’re doing nastier things to your GI tract?

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That’s not the line. Unfertilized eggs, mammal milk have neither nervous systems nor brains, but are not fair game for vegans.
Maybe “things produced by anything that doesn’t have…?”

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From whom? Who says something matters, since there tends to be a narrative that is often proven to be largely from people attempting to make vegans seem like unreasonable weirdos.

What unreasonable weirdos! How dare they not want to harm other living things! /s

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From my daughter, vegan for a decade+. I’ve been veggie for >50 years and she had to one-up me (-:

She doesn’t have a problem with yeast or meat analogs. There’s a range of opinion among vegans. Just as with vegetarians, there are ethical vegans, health vegans, casual vegans, even unreasonable weirdo vegans. No one can speak for the entire gamut.

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Well eggs and honey are products of animals being exploited which is another thing that veganism denounces which I think is part of the whole picture behind the philosophy.

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IANAV but The Vegan Society say that Veganism:

seeks to exclude—as far as is possible and practicable—all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose

Obviously eggs, milk etc rely on exploitation of animals in their production.

It could be argued that a transgenic organism (e.g. a GMO yeast) that contained animal genetic material would have involved animal exploitation in the production of the first yeast cells of that strain, and should be avoided by vegans for that reason.

If the flounder genes had actually made it into the tomato, this might have been an issue there too.

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I have known some vegans who won’t eat fungi because they are more closely related to animals than plants.

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I’ve also found out that most wines do, as well (IIRC, similar to how & why rennet is used for making most cheeses). But there are vegan wines ‐ the ones I’ve seen are also organic, but not all organic wines are vegan.

My recollection was that they are neither. :thinking:

Also:

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Nah, wines mostly use fish bits (bladders) to filter them at the end, removing impurities, and yeast, etc. Rennet is used at the beginning to divide the curds and whey…

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No doubt, but this line of questioning seems more in line with people pointing out how silly and self-righteous vegans are rather than actually interrogating more healthy and ethical forms of eating.

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Curious then, if drinking oat (soy etc) milk with flesh would still be a problem, since oat milk appears to be milk?

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I Agree Barack Obama GIF by The Democrats

I love these kind of talks where the demarcation line can be determined, like how much of Anakin Skywalker could be replaced before he loses his force powers since Midi-Chlorian is tied with the force?

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