I have to laugh at myself here. How funny, to even be asking this question! There was a time, in years past, when I sincerely wondered the exact opposite: if anyone who was not vegan could ever, in any sense, claim to be a good person. If we could ever excuse them for their crimes, their willful ignorance. Oh, how the turntables!

The other day, the SSPX District of the US posted on their Facebook a list of excellent Lenten resources, including a short article that was particularly interesting and relevant to me: it was on the topic of whether it is acceptable for Catholics to consume vegetarian “meat” substitutes, such as the “Impossible” Burger or Morningstar Farms or “Beyond” products, on days of abstinence.

I was surprised that I had never even considered this before! As a longtime vegetarian and occasional vegan, I’ve always just thought: well, abstinence from meat doesn’t really apply to me, since I do that 365 days a year anyway, so, I’ll just find some other penance to do on abstinence days. But it never occurred to me that these processed “meat” treats are, basically, exactly that: meat substitutes. They essentially allow you to have the experience of eating meat without technically eating meat. So to eat them on a meat-free day is really cheating. Going forward, I’ll make sure and avoid these products on Fridays and penitential days!

Now, my family is vegetarian, but 90% of the time we don’t even eat these fake meat products. For one, they are really pricey; and for two, they are so highly processed; I prefer to feed us simple whole foods like beans, lentils, grains, and nuts. I also cook with tofu a lot. But sometimes as a treat I do splurge and buy the vegetarian chicken nuggets for the kids, or the fake bacon strips for a family breakfast, or a vegan Italian sausage to slice up and throw in with pasta. There are so many to pick from these days, and they’re really good!

At this point in my life, I actually prefer the meat substitutes to the real thing. I’ve been vegetarian for so long that the texture of meat, in fact the mere concept of eating meat, gives me the major ick. I’ve actually considered going back to meat-eating so that it would be easier to get protein (carnivore is all the rage these days, and people are so obsessed with protein right now, it’s such a crazy fad that they’re even adding it to things like juice and cereal; all of which makes me doubt myself sometimes, even though I know my vegetarianism is healthy); but, it’s just so nasty to me, I couldn’t stomach it even if I wanted to. And I hate cooking with the stuff. Raw meat is the vilest thing; you have to stress about cooking it to an exact temperature, to avoid bacterial infection, and sometimes you’ll get nasty bits of gristle or vein or bone chips, which, why would you even eat something with all those issues, IMO. The meat substitutes are, for me, just as tasty without any of that ickiness; they feel satisfying but cleaner.

All of this to preface the main point of this post, which is the question: is it morally okay to buy and eat meat substitutes?

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I never really wondered about this until reading this Lenten article! In it, the author admits that, from a rigid POV, these artificial meat products could technically be considered licit on abstinence days, since they contain no animal flesh, even though they are, he says, “an abomination in the eyes of God.”

An abomination? What?! My jaw quite literally dropped!

And then I kind of laughed. Was the author trying to be funny? I don’t think he was, though, because the rest of the article was very scholarly, very dry and straightforward, without any personal opinion or humor or flair of any sort.

Is fake meat really an abomination? I guess the author probably thinks nondairy milks are also an abomination, then? Is it because they are man-made and not natural? In that case, is any purely man-made food product, like M&Ms or plain tofu, an abomination too? Or is it just that these fake meats are imitations of a “real” food product, and that’s what makes them an abomination?

I can see the reasoning there, but still, I’m just not quite convinced that consuming fake meat is immoral. What if you’re like me, and just can’t stomach meat? Or what if, for example, you have high cholesterol, or Alpha-Gal syndrome, or some other health condition that makes you literally allergic to meat, to the point where it would endanger you? Should you just accept this cross and go through life not eating meat?

You know what? Maybe! If we Catholics tell couples with infertility that they have to just accept their cross instead of using artificial, scientific methods to “cheat” and get what they want just because they want it, then, shouldn’t that same logic apply to people who can’t eat meat? – But then, does something like eating a fake burger carry the same moral weight as the illicit creation of human life? I think not.

Is every scientific means of “getting around” nature an abomination? Like, anesthesia, or medication for pain relief – is that an abomination too? (See my post on epidurals.) (This also raises the question of vaccines, which I’m planning to address in the near future.) On that note, is air conditioning unethical? Is hand lotion? Are prosthetic limbs? Contact lenses? Surgery in general? Cars?! (I am definitely on board with the idea that airplanes and submarines are an abomination; people are simply not meant to fly or to go down in the ocean, and that’s just facts.) Is it unethical, then, to rescue someone who’s dying of natural causes?! Is it always unethical to use artificial means to make what God has provided for us more pleasant (or less unpleasant)? I’m not being a smartass here, I’m genuinely wondering now.

Back to fake meat. If it’s not just the artificiality, but the imitation of a real thing that is the issue, then what else is an abomination? Are fake fireplaces an abomination? My house has a gas fireplace, with these fake metal logs sitting in a little iron grate, and you can turn on the propane with a switch to start the fire: is this an abomination? What about lab-created diamonds? Aren’t those more ethical than the ones mined by child slaves? Are fake flowers an abomination? I carried a bouquet of fake flowers at my wedding, because it was the same one my Mom carried at hers. What about man-made lakes? I can think of a couple that are very dear to me.

Maybe these are, indeed, all abominations. Maybe not sinful, because as I was saying they definitely don’t carry the moral weight that something like creating human life does; but still: they are, perhaps, little abominations.

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I think part of the issue that the author had with this article was not just the abomination itself, but the fact that they are, as I said, really expensive. I think the author was wondering why you’d pay extra for a fake instead of just buying the real thing for less money. Especially during Lent, which is all about simplicity: a time when Christians traditionally fasted, and used the money they saved on food to give alms. Buying pricey fake meats is definitely not in the spirit of Lent.

For example, someone like me: I’m vegetarian mainly for reasons of taste, at this point. But Lent is a time to mortify the senses: to not let our taste buds govern our decisions. During Lent, technically no one should be eating meat (except on Sundays), but, if you’re eating meat anyway, it would probably be most ethical to buy whichever option is cheaper.

Or would it? Don’t we also have to consider the morality of the means of production? Those of us who are on a tight budget, and not personally acquainted with any farmers, simply don’t have the option of buying locally-raised, organic-fed meats. Our only choice is what’s on the shelf at the grocery store. Which is definitely not trustworthy, definitely not humanely raised.

I don’t want to use my money to support factory farming. I’m no longer the staunch, PETA-supporting, “Animal Liberation” activist that I used to be, but still: we shouldn’t be cruel to animals. Anyone who says animal suffering doesn’t matter at all is ignorant and wrong. It’s true that animals don’t have souls like humans do, but that does not mean they’re incapable of suffering or that we shouldn’t care if they suffer needlessly. Yes, I’m aware that God told man to “have dominion over the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and the beasts, and the whole earth, and every creeping creature” and “to fill the earth and subdue it.” But to have dominion and to subdue does not mean to torture and abuse. Honestly, given the situation with meat production in our modern world, I am surprised that there aren’t more vegetarian Catholics. (It’s wild to me how many Catholics are clueless about how to eat meat-free! The Eastern Orthodox, with their rigorous vegan fasts, are surely pointing and laughing at us.)

I think it’s probably less unethical to use my money to support factories that create fake meat products than it is to support factories that torture animals. But less bad doesn’t mean good.

Probably the most ethical – and also the healthiest and most affordable – way to be vegetarian/vegan, is to eat whole foods: foods that actually come from nature. (I’m not paid to advertise here (who would pay me to advertise anyway, I have like 0 viewers, lol), but, this is precisely why I’m so obsessed with the publication Forks Over Knives, which prints exclusively whole foods plant-based recipes, mostly oil-free and without highly-processed ingredients; every single recipe of theirs that I’ve ever made is freaking delicious; they’re the coolest!) If you’re gonna be meat-free, for whatever reason – whether it’s because of ethical concerns, health requirements, or personal taste – I think you should just accept that you’re making a sacrifice, and you don’t get to eat meat anymore.

And dairy-free folks? Should they do the same thing and just forego milk, if they can’t have dairy? As someone who vastly prefers nondairy milks myself (who wants to drink a tall glass of another mammal’s breastmilk? Ugh, gag me!), I hate to admit it, but: following this logic, then: … maybe? Or, is soy milk less of an abomination than a Beyond Burger, because it’s just an innocuous liquid made from a plant, instead of some mystery chemical substance, dyed weird colors and shaped to resemble a meat product? I think this is probably the case – but, I’m not sure on this point yet; maybe I’m struggling with it because soy milk has been around so much longer than fake meat, and is even more normalized and ubiquitous. What do we think? I’d be super curious to know the author’s thoughts on nondairy milk and yogurt.

Dang! This article really made me take a closer look at my whole approach to groceries and my own vegetarianism. See, this is one reason why I love Traditional Catholicism so much.

Anyway, in conclusion: what I’ve learned is, fake meats probably are, indeed, an abomination. But I don’t think it’s necessarily always a moral failing to buy and eat them. If they’re a regular staple of your diet, or if you’re eating them on abstinence days because they’re “not really meat,” then maybe you need to think about that. But as an occasional splurge or treat on a normal day, or as a time-saver when you’re in a real pinch (as I frequently am, as a mom of three, soon to be four, young kids), they’re probably okay. At first, I thought “abomination” seemed like a really heavy word to use on something as benign as soy chorizo; but the more I think about it, the author has a point.