Steaks in space!

[Slater]

It was good to see the Captain chowing down on a hefty T-bone steak. The Vulcans don't what they're missing.

 

[Neo]

well... guess he is not a veggie

 

[Dave]

Are Vulcans veggies then?

Is that something I've missed, or something just mentioned in 'Enterprise'? And how did T'Pol get to be such a big girl on a diet of Lentils?

 

[Neo]

Not sure .... just thought we in the future would have moved away from killing animals to eat...

 

[Dave]

Vulcan Vegetarianism.

I've noticed that many fan-fic writers and role-playing games do assume that all Vulcans are Vegetarian, but I can't find out if it is a canonical fact or not. The 'Trek: The Encyclopaedia' says that they are, without giving any evidence, while the official 'Star Trek Encyclopaedia' doesn't mention it.

Tuvok

Presumably he ate Noss' sautéed spiders ('Gravity' VOY) as a survival measure. But if not, this is evidence that he is not a Vegetarian.

Tuvok once took part in the ritual of Tal'oth, in which he survived for four months in the Vulcan desert with only a ritual blade. ('Displaced' VOY). I'm assuming he used the blade to hunt for food, not just to cut open Cacti.

Spock

While both William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy are Vegetarians in real life, I find no evidence that Spock is.

Maybe that 'V' sign that Spock makes when he says "Live long and prosper" is actually a secret code for "Vegetarian."

The best evidence I can find is that, Spock, Tuvok and T'Pol, all eat the orange coloured plomeek soup, although Spock threw his away into the corridor. If T'Pol eats it, it must be Vegetarian, and it is a Traditional Vulcan dish, that reminds Tuvok of home.

Roddenberry's view

On the other hand, since it was GR's view, he may have had it in mind for Vulcans:

From 'Philosophy Sphere':

Interviewer: I remember the character of Commander Riker on the current series commenting on how it was no longer necessary for animals to be raised for food. [In the words of Will Riker, "We no longer enslave animals for food purposes."] Twenty-fourth century technology could create an analog of meat so that all the things associated with bringing meat to the table were no longer necessary.

Roddenberry: I look forward to that day coming. We would have our juicy T-bone steak without having to kill the animal. I feel different way about domestic animals now. I am a bit queasy about the way we raise our chickens and beef cattle and so on. It’s really ugly.

Interviewer: You’re talking about factory farms?

Roddenberry: Yes, it is just not a good thing. I also look forward to when we will contact other races and other life forms. What will our attitude be toward them? If we are not careful, we may see sentient life that is so different we won’t realize it is sentient. Because the creatures we meet don’t act and interact as we do, we might consider them valuable, much as many people disdain dolphins and whales today.

 

[Tabitha]

The second ep of Enterprise on UPN this wednesday - it was the one where Enterprise meets up with the Vulcans who are 'exploring themselves' - it is explicitly stated in that ep that the Vulcan's are veggies. The Vulcan captain asks for some chicken and T'Pol looks very disapproving.... Archer says to him 'you do know this is meat, right?'.

 

[Dave]

That's a good call! I do remember that too, and T'Pol is definiately Vegetarian without any doubt, but the Vulcans in 'Enterprise' are subtly different in many ways from later Vulcans. Do you think that means all Vulcans are Vegetarian?

Those separatist-Vulcans in that episode also believed that they were following Surak's teachings, within their own interpretation of them, so if they thought that eating chicken was alright, there cannot be anything in the Vulcan philosophy that forbids eating meat. (That's my personal view.)

I do think that sooner or later Enterprise is going to come out and say that they are all Vegetarian, but I'm not sure that it was originally intended.

 

[Neo]

Thats right do u remember the scene in were t'pol was trying to cut up breadsticks with a knife and fork.... LOL.. made me laugh it did

 

[Dave]

The June 2002 issue of 'Star Trek Monthly', which is a Vulcan special, also states that "Vulcans are Vegetarian", but I only believe what I actually see on my TV or Movie screen, and I still don't think that we've heard it said yet that all Vulcans, not just the 'Enterprise' variety are.

And another piece of evidence in my case:

Vulcan molluscs, An edible sea creature native to Vulcan that is noted to many, including Quark. He served an entre of jumbo Vulcan molluscs sauteed in Rhombolian butter to Fallit Kot who appeared to at least tolerate it.

Now would a planet of Vegetarians, especially Vulcan Vegetarians, allow aliens, especially Ferengi, to visit their planet, and hunt the animal life?

As for Steaks, without replicators, the Enterprise NX-01 would need a large food storage area, especially if they are eating animal products. Maybe they have a Hydroponics bay we haven't seen yet, but the Steaks would need to be frozen or kept from spoiling in some futuristic way. That is a lot of wasted space on a small ship. We haven't seen them stop to take on supplies, and I doubt that cattle would have been taken to colonies anyway.

 

[Neo]

They are Veggies... T'pol was eating breadsticks .. she could not believ it when she saw then eating steak