3 ms·
Yes. Figs are basically the most likely, as you see here. The fruit can't even be produced without the help of a fig wasp, and they often end up dead inside it.
by CydeWeys 4y ago
Yes. Figs are basically the most likely, as you see here. The fruit can't even be produced without the help of a fig wasp, and they often end up dead inside it. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/fresh-figs-and-bugs-66202233/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/fresh-figs-and-b...
- enchiridion 4y agoThat’s not really true. You only need the wasps to pollinate. But the tree will fruit without being pollinated.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- arcticbull 4y agoDepends on the variety. Most of the US ones don’t even need the wasps but the Calimyrna does.
- culi 4y agoStore bought varieties of the common fig are likely a self-pollinating variety but the wild variety of the common fig, as well as most of the rest of the 800+ species of figs, are not self-pollinating
- noobermin 4y agoThe conflict regards eating meat right, not relying on other organisms for their production? Because then a lot of fruits or other types of plants can't be eaten if they rely on pollination, right?
- 2muchcoffeeman 4y agoIt’s the exploitation of animals. So chicken eggs aren’t vegan but eggs are unfertilised.
- culi 4y agoCalifornia's almond industry is notorious for the devastating effects it has on honeybees and the diseases it spreads. By that definition, California almonds are also not vegan
- noobermin 4y agoIf that's the case, then a lot of foods can be considered not vegan by that definition. That includes some trees that are fertilized by dead animals, inadvertently, or by petroleum based fertilizers. Death of wasps by a very natural process is similar in spirit to the latter two. Not just eating meat (which eggs can sort of be considered, same for drinking milk). I wouldn't say a wasp that died in a fig was exploited intentionally by any human, at least, unless the wasps are introduced to figs in order for them to pollinate them. If the absence of action also is considered exploitation, then eating fruit from a tree that a rat has died under could be considered exploitation of animals by that criteria. Yes, this is a bit of a reductio ad absurdum, but a dead wasp in a fig is already a bit down that road. There is certainly a difference between drinking milk from a cow and a (likely) accidentally dead wasp in a fig.
- 2muchcoffeeman 4y agoI’m not a vegan, but I think this take is way off. If you purposely exploit an animal for food, especially in unfavourable conditions, like putting chickens in cages and harvesting their eggs, farming animals for meat, that’s not vegan. If you are out in the woods and eat the fruit of a tree that an animal died under and fertilised, that’s fine. It probably also doesn’t extend to animals that were dead long enough to turn into oil.
- noobermin 4y agoThen I suppose you think that the article under question is in fact vegan and the "controversy" about it is overblown.
- gnicholas 4y agoInteresting. We had a fig tree growing up, and I must have eaten hundreds or thousands of them as a kid. I never remember seeing wasps, and I'm pretty sure I would have noticed!
- csours 4y agoThese wasps are tiny
- anon84873628 4y agoThey also dissolve by the time you eat the fruit
- morsch 4y agoThe article is evidence that they do not.
- californical 4y agoIt seems that normal fig wasps do dissolve with how long it takes to grow the fruit after pollination, but the wasps they found were separate from the normal ones and may have entered later
- culi 4y agoIt's quite possible you've eaten wasps even from store-bought figs. The wasps are very tiny
- WirelessGigabit 4y agoMind you that the fig wasp looks nothing like the insect we see of when we think of a wasp.
- tpm 4y agoThat's because there weren't any wasps. Only some fig varieties depend on them. Parthenocarpic cultivars don't (however the resulting fruits are sterile I think).