Peaceful, idyllic societies have a tendency to be vegetarian (if not vegan) in fiction. As often as not, these societies are portrayed as being morally, perhaps even spiritually/magically superior to our own, implying that humanity's meat-eating habit is somehow holding us back from living in a world of Crystal Spires and Togas. Sometimes it can be downright Anvilicious.
Some cases aren't so focused on the evils of eating animals so much as how circumstances might force people to adopt a vegetarian diet. See Future Food Is Artificial for examples of this.
Races that refrain from meat-eating simply because their digestive physiology is herbivorous aren't necessarily examples of this trope — if they have to eat plants, they're not really demonstrating moral superiority by doing so — but such species may subvert this trope's expectations if they're violently aggressive in spite of their diet.
Straight examples often go hand-in-hand with Virtuous Vegetarianism. Probably stems from the issues raised by Carnivore Confusion and Let's Meet the Meat. See also Perfect Pacifist People. See Herbivores Are Friendly for the herbivorous animal equivalent.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
- In Hoshin Engi, Sennin have powers normal humans can only dream of and live in a floating, hi-tech mountain range in the sky. Because they use up less energy than normal people, they can subsist exclusively on fruits and vegetables, while eating meat or fish is forbidden. Likewise, the people of Tosenkyo (an isolated utopia country created by one of the Three Great Sennin) seemingly follow the same dietary conditions and strict morals, only breeding sheep for wool. By contrast, Yokai Sennin tend to be far more amoral and have no qualms about eating meat (or flesh).
- The setting of Goblin Slayer is based primarily on Western-style fantasy and so Elves have a largely plant-based diet, but they also eat insects. They explain that eating plants, which regenerate each year; and bugs, which are effectively unlimited, means far less damage to nature than rearing an animal for years and then slaughtering it would be. They also don't consume dairy products, again because of the environmental damage that it would cause.
Comic Books
- Wonder Woman (1987): Later issues present the Amazons as enlightened scholars like they were in their first iteration, and adds in their being vegetarians.
Film
- In Logan's Run (at least the movie), it seems the characters are vegan: when faced with the concept that humans once raised animals for food, Jessica remarks that "it must have been a savage world". Of course, what they don't know is that their own food source died out years ago and they've been (possibly) eating frozen people for decades.
- Mr. Nobody: By 2092 humanity has conquered mortality and the consumption of meat (which the main character laments) and Housepet Pigs are popular.
- In Carnage Swallowing The Past the current generation is vegan from birth and eating meat and dairy is horrifying for them. They are also oblivious that not long ago people ate animal products. It seems that times are peaceful and people are generally very open to themselves. But it isn't equally for everyone as most older generations struggle with their "carnist" past and they are going to therapies (similar to AA) to fight with their immense guilt.
Literature
- Technology similar to the Uterine Replicator in Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga allows people to create "vat protein" with no animals being harmed. No one is a true vegan, but when forced to eat meat from a real animal, Cordelia is distinctly uncomfortable (outside of one time when she'd been forced to subsist on oatmeal and salad dressing for several days for lack of any alternative). How "vegan" this situation is proves debatable in Ethan of Athos, where the reader is shown just where the protein in those vats comes from when the characters use the animal protein reclamation system to covertly dispose of a dead body.
- In Samuel R. Delany's Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand, the enlightened human narrator is shocked at the idea of eating meat from what had been a living animal... being much more comfortable eating vat-grown human flesh.
- Humans in James Gurney's Dinotopia are generally vegans — "No milk, no meat, and no eggs." Not that milk is easy to come by, given that the only large mammals on the island live in inhospitable mountains. And when the local cow- and chicken-equivalents are the sentient dinosaurs who make up a large portion of the population, well... They give fish to tyrannosaurs so fish seem OK. Material in subsequent books (including a mammoth being milked in Journey to Chandara and mentions of shellfish catching in Hand of Dinotopia) suggest that most of Dinotopia is actually pescatarian. Dinotopia is, well, a utopia in which all species and cultures live together in beautifully-illustrated harmony.
- The elves in Christopher Paolini's Inheritance Cycle are revealed to be vegans, as a consequence of their Telepathy letting them experience the thoughts of animals (an attitude also adopted by Eragon after he trains his own Telepathy under an elf mentor). However, the first elf introduced in the series is a little more blasé about this (being okay with animal products like leather), implied to be because she spends so much time outside of elf lands. Likewise, once he's been back among humans for a while, Eragon's new stance on meat softens from disgust to merely preferring not to eat it.
- Subverted with the Galactic Federation from John Ringo's Legacy of the Aldenata, who are all not so much vegetarians as outright herbivores, and are in fact incapable of killing a living animal (a major plot point). The Darhel, one of the four races that make it up, are very obviously naturally carnivorous, with sharp, needle-like teeth. All of them are technologically far more advanced, claim moral superiority, except the Darhel have had a 5000-year-long stranglehold on GalFed politics and economy, treat the most populous member race as slaves, and, since shortly after contact with humans was made, have been systematically sabotaging human attempts to fight off the omnivorous alien hordes in order to keep our numbers down or exterminate us altogether.
- From Animorphs:
- The Andalites turn out to be a subversion. They evolved to be herbivores and are initially disgusted at the idea of eating flesh, and, while not pacifists, they are portrayed as a heroic race fighting to defend the galaxy from the evil Yeerks. But those on Earth seem to not have any moral qualms about eating meat, especially since in human form they are rather overwhelmed by taste and try to eat anything. Also, it becomes increasingly clear over the course of the series that they're not as morally pure as they first appear.
- Before the Yeerks enslaved them, the Hork Bajir were stone age herbivores with no concept of war. They eventually do learn to defend themselves, but remain among the more unambiguously good characters in the series.
- When the Animorphs got sent back to the time of the dinosaurs, they found that Earth had a peaceful race called the Merconda, who ate vegetables (and even imported broccoli from their home world.)
- Many Fairies in Artemis Fowl are vegetarians, and, if their society is not a utopia, they certainly think it is better than human civilization. Objectively it is not so different from human civilization. Some fairies are dim-witted, some are noble, some shallow, and some treacherous.
- The Star Wars Expanded Universe has Ithorians, a.k.a. "hammerheads". They're pacifists who don't eat meat and tend to sentient trees.
- Anne McCaffrey's Dinosaur Planet and Planet Pirates subvert the trope. Vegetarianism is legally mandated by The Federation, to such a strict degree that omnivorous species must unanimously swear off meat or be kicked out of the FSP. "Reversion" to hunting for meat is portrayed as a heinous crime and leads to mutiny when the heavyworlders indulge in this forbidden practice. In the continuation, a major conflict is that while the majority culture of the Federation considers vegetarianism to be the only civilized diet, the heavyworlders reject this, since meat-eating and cannibalism were the only way that their genetically-engineered bodies could get enough nutrition to survive their first winter on their colony, and they're not too keen on being called barbarians by people who would never go through the same tribulations.
- S.L. Viehl's Jorenians—despite being pastoralists descended from predators—are vegetarians (although Xonea Torin tries shrimp alfredo with scarcely a comment in Beyond Varallan). Zigzagged in that they're portrayed as both a Superior Species (if mainly because Terrans are rabid xenophobes and hypocrites in the Stardoc-verse) and a Proud Warrior Race (albeit one wearing the Cultured Warrior hat).
- Subverted in The Book of Dreams, which describes a world in which a colony of fanatical human vegetarians degenerates into mindless grazing animals.
- The gnomes of the idyllic society of Gnomes don't eat meat, probably because they also speak fluent animal, though they do consume songbird eggs and also dairy products if given by others.
- Immortal Guardians: All of the Immortals and their Seconds are organic vegetarians. Meat and artificial flavoring are carcinogenic and can lead to a variety of ailments. Since the Immortals survive by drinking blood donated by humans to repair any damage done to their bodies, they avoid non-vegan, non-organic foods to avoid the damaging effects. At least once a book a character will go on about how yummy an alternate version of a dish is and they can't believe that it's organic/vegan! They also will discuss how much they love organic, vegan ice cream, unsalted popcorn, and plain berries for dessert. Usually they avoid bashing people who don't choose to eat vegan/organic, but not always. In the debut novel, a main character describes eating meats and non-organic as intentionally trashing your body and compares eating organically and vegan to practicing a religion.
- Subverted in Myth-Ion Improbable, in which the human inhabitants of Kowtow eat only vegetables and drink carrot juice, despite having vast herds of cattle that their cowboys look after. This is because the humans lost a war with vampires, who drained every other species except humans and horses into extinction and were about to exhaust the supply of those, too. So their leader put a spell on the entire planet, turning the vampires into ordinary cows except for the monthly "roundup" when they feed on the spell-docile humans, who then have a month off to regain their strength. There's only one non-vegan human on the planet, and he's a pampered prisoner who eats horse steaks.
- In A Song of Ice and Fire, the people of Naath are extreme pacifists who don't eat meat and mainly live on fruit.
- Villains by Necessity: Deconstructed along with everything else about good overwhelming the world. An owl is mentioned being unable to hunt to eat, but it is also unable to die from starvation. It may be that other predator animals are unable to kill to eat, and equally unable to die by the time (Kaylana's wildcat friend seemed fine, but this was earlier).
- In Xanth, human communities technically eat meat, but it and most of the rest of their food come from enchanted trees. Killing animals (or other beings) for food is seen as something the monster races do.
Live-Action TV
- Star Trek
- Vulcans — which serve as the "morally-superior" race, at least in their own minds. However there are plants, and then there are Vulcan plants. In a Star Trek novel set on Spock's homeworld, the characters are attacked by a mobile, shrieking, prey-stalking carnivorous plant native to the region... and after it's been phasered to death, Spock eats some of it. One of the early TOS novels postulated that Vulcans were vegetarians partly because the herbivores previously used as meat died off during Surak's time. The most common reason given for their vegetarianism is the same one that led them to pacifism. They are such a violent and destructive race that they have to go to extreme lengths to not destroy themselves/conquer the universe/destroy the universe.
- Veganism seems common on Federation ships due to access to Matter Replicators that can create very convincing meat substitutes, avoiding the need to keep the real stuff in storage on long voyages. Attitudes about veganism vary widely, from disdain toward the concept of eating meat - like Riker claiming they don't enslave animals for food anymore, to acceptance - like Picard importing genuine seafood at what was implied to be great expense to eagerness: Dax and other patrons of Klingon cuisine complaining that their gagh is too dead.
- Along vaguely similar lines, eating meat (or at least beef) is illegal in the near-future world of SeaQuest DSV, it seems, because the ecologically-minded folks of the late 2020s did not like the atmospheric implications of keeping large numbers of cows around. Real meat is available, though, and seems to hold a position and legality roughly akin to that of Cuban cigars in the U.S. today.
- Similar to the Star Trek example above, people in The Orville do eat animal products but they're all replicated, and killing an animal for food is considered murder.
- Doctor Who: In the successful hippie commune of the Third Doctor serial "The Green Death", the local Marty Stu is on the hunt for a mushroom that tastes like meat, with the implication that it would eliminate the need for meat, and therefore meat-eating altogether.
- Inverted on Zoo: by the end of Season One, humans have given up on eating meat not because they care about animals, but because animals all over the world have gone kill-crazy towards human beings. Most livestock have either been destroyed or escaped and even when meat is available, people are afraid it may be contaminated with whatever's affecting the animals.
Religion
- Many Christians believe that God originally intended for all creation to be vegetarian and that this will be the ideal that would be perfected once the Kingdom is fulfilled. Indeed, in the Garden of Eden, God gave mankind the fruit of the trees to eat, and green plants to the animals. Later, in the Book of Isaiah, a vision of the New Earth states that carnivores would no longer eat other creatures, and that "the cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox." (Isaiah 11:7). The Seventh-Day Adventist denomination is also known for its advocacy of vegetarianism based on this idea.
- Some Jews also believe that everyone will be vegetarian in the Messianic Age.
- The principle of ahimsa, or nonviolence, has led many Hindus and Buddhists to be vegetarians. Jains take it a step further, not even eating some plants (mostly plants like onions, in which harvesting kills the whole plant).
Video Games
- Aven Colony: You can grow or trade for a variety of plants for your colonists, both earth plants and aliens ones, but meat is not available or mentioned.
- In Black & White: The simple, pacifistic villagers of the first game only farm grain, despite having sheep and cows on hand, and the player gains evil points for putting animals into the village store to be eaten.
- The Elder Scrolls inverts this with the Bosmer (Wood Elves), who are religiously obliged to follow the "Green Pact" they made with their patron deity, Y'ffre, the God of the Forest, leading to them having a highly carnivorous diet within their homeland of Valenwood in order to protect their sacred plants. Culturally, they are also obliged to eat their fallen enemies after killing them in battle as they are not allowed to rot within (and thus taint) Valenwood. Both of these restrictions appear to be heavily relaxed on Bosmer who live outside of Valenwood, however. Even within Valenwood, there is much Loophole Abuse. Using fallen deadwood and eating fruit that fell off of trees naturally is allowed. Mushrooms may also be eaten, as they do not count as plants.
- Parodied and subverted in Improbable Island: The cafe in Kittania is introduced by a server going on a spiel about using only locally-grown produce to produce their selection of vegetarian and vegan meals... the effect of which is rather marred by the lovingly-detailed dripping, bloody steak that's also on the menu. As the server admits when you point this out, Kittymorphs are still carnivores, and just because they try to "tread lightly on Mother Earth" doesn't mean they can actually completely give up meat.
- In I Was a Teenage Exocolonist, being a vegan society was the original ideal of the Stratospheric's people — they use soy and other plant-based proteins in food to avoid the ecological burden of raising domesticated animals on the ship. However, when they actually arrive on their new home, most of their food reserves and the soil needed to grow more are destroyed (unless Sol takes a very specific route), and as a result, hunting and ranching become part of their lifestyle even before the Heliopause arrives.
- Zig-Zagged by Pokémon. The various regions (except maybe Orre) appear to be borderline post-scarcity, and according to Word of God the majority of the meat consumed by humans in the setting is either synthetic (since real-world animals were retconned out) or parts that fall off naturally and regenerate. However, there are rare exceptions as Farfetch'd and certain aquatic Pokémon like Sharpedo and Basculin have been considered delicacies in the past. The series carries heavy themes of respecting nature, and the fact that Interspecies Romance between humans and Pokémon used to be common complicates matters even further.
Webcomics
- Averted with the orcs in Dominic Deegan. They're all vegans, but it's not because they're peaceful (far from it, they have massive internal strife). It's because orcs are obligate herbivores, so animal products don't sit well with them (their tusks are because the native vegetables in their home land are incredibly tough and woody - Luna mistakes one for a cutting board at one point).
