Ok a few more thoughts on this.
overpopulation seems as good a reason as any to develop space travel, and we are seeing the model do something similar here. they say that meat animals create alot of greenhouse gas, and of course they take up space.
all those cliches about a future filled with soy burgers doesnt (by the numbers) seem that far fetched.
and again by the time you have too little space for meat animals due to overpopulation youd be developing space flight in a big way.
so here we are in space and again, daisy the cow just isnt the optimum payload to deliver the service required.
ive heard a "story" (chaneled) that one race uses large vats which grow a genetically optimised algae which is scrapped off and ingested.
sounds whacky ?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirulina_(dietary_supplement)
all very do-able, and we are using feral stock. its not too much of a stretch to consider a GM'd version of this being a viable energy source for space travelers, in a simple nuts and bolts way.
thats just the practical side, im not a vegan but i do eat a lot of vegitarian food, and keep my use of animal products to a minimum.
for example i have a half dozen pairs of synthetic shoes, but one good pair of leather hikers because thats the material better suited to the task.
i feed my dogs meat, because thats what is natural for them.
but i have vegan freinds who quite seriouly view a fridge full of chicken necks or a pantry stocked with tuna in cans as a charnel house.
and are highly offended to encounter such, to the point where i borrow a neighbours fridge for the dogs dinner, and make sure the pantry doesnt have any canned meats, as a courtesy to them if they are visiting.
Bills website is asking everyone if we want aliens to manifest, and my first thought is if im having them over to dinner should i take the same steps to "clean up" as i would if a vegan were visiting.
based on my "daisy" reasoning one might expect they might be vegan, and so id really like to know how many of the member species in the federation ingest meat products.
every bio system here from plants to animals take energy and use it to maintain function, one could imagine that like any system an ET entity would need to ingest fuel , considering the various human taboos about food ive always wondered about the meat thingy when looking at the ET question.
ive always held a suspicion that a species that has spent a million years scrapping lunch of the side of an algae vat might be as squeemish as my vegan friends when it comes to our overall dietry sources as a species