Would you care for a

Marshmallow?
No thanks, I'm a vegetarian.
...
...
...
you're against the killing and eating of marshmallows?

^ A snippet of conversation that occurred the first night of the tramp, because someone was trying to get rid of their marshmallows and reduce bulk/mass in their packs. It was pitch black and cold but it was only 6.30, so we were all killing time by talking and sending murderous glances at our watches (are you kidding? it's still 6.45?!) Anyway, as it turns out, marshmallows contain gelatin. And gelatin is made from horses' hooves and other such delightful ingredients.

After being told that, only four of the nine people in our circle took a marshmallow.

Which got me thinking.
People like to say profound-sounding things like "you are what you eat" but if that's the case, none of us knows what we are. Honestly. Who bothers to read the ingredients on the back of packaged foods? And even if you do, do you really know what all that stuff is made of?

We should not worry so much about what is in our food, I think. We should all just either become 100% self-sufficient farmers or..
something.
Because (s)he who buys free range eggs forgets to abstain from mayonnaise.
And it does not occur to (s)he who refuses marshmallows that jelloplanes are exceedingly likely to also contain gelatin.

I know that from a vegetarian's point of view, you would want to stay away from absolutely anything that was made from an animal's body. Being a collection of gazillions of molecules though, we can't keep track of everything and we would go insane if we tried.

yum.