Venusian Meat

They say if you're eating meat on Venus, beware, it might be someone you know.

The first question quickly becomes: 'what meat?'. The Venusian diet is strictly vegan, supported by the Venusian Workers Union and enforced by the Overseer. All food is sourced from the Sheji platforms and mobile greenhouses aloft in the upper atmo. Hunting is illegal, and animals found wounded or dead are either taken to a clinic or to the recycling vats. In the ladder cases their nutrients are then redistributed into local crop systems.

A common, and more understandable expression is that there are no cats on Venus. Even in the book of Green it's written that a carnivore on Venus will have no choice but to eat the people, for the birds are too scrawny, and the beatles too bitter.

So what is Venusian Meat? Where did this ironic term come from?

A Monk of the Green returning home to Venus, once expressed her frustration that she could not secure a decent meat during her Green Pilgrimage. When an initiate asked her why she didn't try finding Venusian meat, she laughed. Later she explained that unlike Mars, Venus is not blessed with a surplus of organic materials. When a person is found wounded or dead, they are either taken to a clinic, or to the recycling vats. She called it: "The final duty of every Venusian."

And so here at last we glean an understanding. Venusian Citizens when deceased are obliged to enter the recycling vats post mortem. This allows for the preservation of vital minerals and nutrients. In essence: the Venusians feed the plants which in turn feed the Venusians.

You might not be eating meat, but from meat it came, and to meat it has now returned.