So it’s made of shit, right? And shit is an animal product. But barring a night of drinking or a particularly aggressive burrito, shitting does not harm the shitter; it’s beneficial and required. Also the animals in question can and do consent, does that make it vegan?
Yes. No sentient being had to suffer and die to provide that product. So replicated meat, leather, or other “animal products” are vegan imo. But I also think concepts like vegan and vegetarian will have evolved in the replicator era.
What about wool and eggs and milk though? These are not vegan but the animal does not die to produce them.
Fun fact: Like humans, other mammals like cows do not constantly produce milk year round. They only produce milk after having been pregnant. So, to keep cows producing, they are forcibly artificially inseminated year round. After giving birth each time, it is not financially viable to raise the constant stream of offspring, so the calves are simply slaughtered. So, while the animal producing the milk does not die, in a roundabout way, death is still a byproduct.
Fuck, wouldn’t want to hear the unfun facts
This isn’t even true. Lactation can be induced in humans without pregnancy. Read a book.
“They only produce milk after having been pregnant” is just a dumbed down way of saying “pregnancy is what releases the hormones that stimulate lactation”. The point still stands that mammals do not lactate at all times.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galactorrhea
those are vegetarian.