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existential1 wrote (edited )

This is a false premise. Other than root vegetables, you can harvest veggies without killing the entire plant.

For cruciferous vegetables, you can harvest nearly all (or all in some cases) of the plant (except the root) and it will grow right back as if nothing happened. I actually just harvested some kale last week that grew from a stub (I harvested kale seeds from the plant, cut it down to about an inch above the ground, and it grew fresh kale a couple months later surprisingly even though it had already gone to seed). In fact, you can harvest beet greens a few times in the beet's lifetime before harvesting the beet.

For nightshades like tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, etc, it is actually no different than fruit from a tree. You are harvesting the fruit of a plant. Doesn't harm the plant at all.

For squash, it is the same as nightshades. The plant "itself" is the root and stem while the squash is the fruit.

I'm thinking that you may have not ever grown veggies before :) One of the nice things about growing your own food is you learn a lot about how dope nature is and how "ethical" you can be without even trying that hard.

EDIT: Spelling

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ziq wrote (edited )

Yup. I have collards and kales growing for years that still haven't gone to seed. I feed the leaves to my rabbit and ducks everyday and they grow new ones on the stalk after a week (some of the stalks are as big as small trees). And I have a cut and come again lettuce / mustard / rocket bed for me where I use scissors to harvest everything once a week and eventually let it go to seed.

For nightshades like tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, etc, it is actually no different than fruit from a tree. You are harvesting the fruit of a plant. Doesn't harm the plant at all.

I would call those fruits.

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sudo OP wrote

That's good to know. I was thinking of root vegetables at the time I wrote this. I suppose I should rephrase my question as: should we avoid eating plants that we need to kill in order to consume?

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existential1 wrote

For the "new" question...I would still not consider an issue. Mostly for the same reason that i think veganism has contextual limits as well (even though I'm vegan). Some root vegetables, like potatoes, are prolific spreaders. If you happen to have them growing in an open area, they can quite easily start to disrupt other systems you have going. So as a base case, I don't think it's an issue in certain contexts.

That being said, I really don't have an issue with eating root vegetables at all. You can grow more than you could ever plant with the seeds of a few plants (one plant for prolific seeders), and some things don't last through the seasons anyway. Also, though I have very strong opinions about grafting trees, I don't in general view the caloric consumption of vegetables to be all that controversial.

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