While eating the nests of swifts is nothing new, the large-scale production of these nests is. Already a $200 million a year industry largely concentrated in Malaysia and Thailand, the farming of swifts is now being ramped up in Vietnam. Because they will rebuild the nests made of their own saliva when they are taken, and because they are worth more alive and building nests than they are dead, the practice does not harm the swifts and gives a positive economic incentive to conserve them. This leaves one question: Can vegans eat swift nests?
because they rebuild the nests, it doesn’t harm them?
What about the energy they need to keep rebuilding? And what about using the souped up nests to incubate the eggs? I’m a vegetarian, count me out for this meal.
Seems that the legalization and regulation of the trade in these nests has actually prevented poaching and helped conserve populations.
Are the nests abandoned nests? One would assume so, and the swifts seem to readily take to man-made structures built for them.
I know too little about this subject to have an opinion, but it seems to work okay for both sides?
Can vegans eat honey? If yes, they can eat the nests. But who wants to anyway?