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?
Corey is a New Yorker who lived most of his life in upstate New York but has lived in Queens since 2008. He's only been birding since 2005 but has garnered a respectable life list by birding whenever he wasn't working as a union representative or spending time with his family. He lives in Forest Hills with Daisy and Desmond Shearwater. His bird photographs have appeared on the Today Show, in Birding, Living Bird Magazine, Bird Watcher's Digest, and many other fine publications. He is also the author of the American Birding Association Field Guide to the Birds of New York.
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?