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Comment by capkutay | Hacker News Reader

At first i wanted to say of course insects count against being vegetarian. But then I thought about it...vegetarians don't want to eat living things, but technically plants are alive too.

Is mass farming vegetables as inhumane as mass-farming cows, pigs, chickens etc? probably not.

But mass farming insects may not be anymore inhumane than the life wild insects are already accustomed to (living in tight, dark spaces).

From a sustainability standpoint, there's no question that getting your protein from insects is better for the environment than cows/pigs/chickens.

But some people are vegetarian just because they're generally grossed out by eating bloody flesh...so just from that angle i'd say insects are not vegetarian.

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Many vegetarians don't eat animals because they feel pain not because they are alive, were that the case they would eat animals that died of old age. Plants have no mechanism to feel pain and some plants specifically spread through consumption, though there are some plants that vegans won't eat because insects play a necessary part in their creation i.e. almonds if memory serves correct, they don't eat honey for the same reason. Vegans generally want no animal or insect, sometimes even bacteria involved in the creation of there food and there's numerous n different forms of veganism that in not knowledgeable enough to describe. There's debate about some sea life for vegetarians, however recent information highly suggest insects feel pain and most vegetarians probably wouldn't include intentional insect consumption as valid vegetarianism (there's no real avoiding unintentionally consuming some). It's not grossness thing. Most people who are vegetarian started as meat eaters and chose for a time or for life they were no longer comfortable with the equation of enjoyment of eating meat versus the harm to other creatures they were causing. Everyone needs to figure out their own line of comfort and that changes over a lifetime.

Your arguments about sustainability while not incorrect don't actually factor into the debate about whether or not insects are agreeable to a vegetarian diet and lifestyle. They are more of a concern about animal welfare which doesn't require a vegetarian diet. There are numerous animal advocates and farmers who advocate for animal welfare without practicing a diet other than omnivorous.

"Many vegetarians don't eat animals because they feel pain not because they are alive, were that the case they would eat animals that died of old age."

I don't understand what you are saying. You seem to be saying that many vegetarians don't eat animals that died naturally...for what reason?

Relevant from one day ago https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20432600

There are 'non-sentient' animals like mollusks. I'd hazard insects are, generally, dumb enough that cruelty is further removed. We kill house insects all the time, for no reason other than they bother us.

Long ago I read something that questioned why we get so angry (or whatever emotion) that we kill insects like that so easily. Why end its life? I don't remember where I read it, but decades later I still think of that whenever I either kill a bug or think of killing one. I'm not claiming to be a saint or anything, and I'll still go on a rampage with a fly-swatter.

Last night I was sitting outside reading, and something touched my skin in the wrong way I guess, and I instinctively looked around and reached down and smashed it, like in a split second. It was a millimeter long green baby grasshopper-looking thing. I was alone, but I apologized (to nobody) for killing it.

We kill house insects all the time, for no reason other than they bother us.

The fear of some technologists, is that someday, super-optimizing sentient AIs will treat us the same way.

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