Talk:Food and beverage/@comment-146.191.228.22-20110520012835/@comment-71.3.215.210-20110825150832

The cows are sentient (capable of speech) as noticed in Applebuck Season, and get milked in Boast Busters, albeit off-screen, as part of how Twilight handles the Ursa Minor.

Lauren Faust has stated (I don't have the source information, but it was an interview) that the pigs are for finding truffles.

They do use eggs, but that seems to be the only exception to the non-animal-based-product rule.

The 'meat sandwich' could contain any number of non-meat products, and the 'Baked Bads' (which contained nothing dangerous to ponies until the addition of worms, just a blend of tasty things that are less than tasty when baked together) caused symptoms reminiscent of food poisoning in ponies, but were delicious to Spike (although that itself is acceptable considering he eats crystallized rocks) and had no ill effect on him.

Everything you've mentioned (including the knives-- ever try to cut a large root vegetable with a paring knife?) is explained in some way, either in-universe or by simple extrapolation of logic. The only exception to their otherwise entirely herbivorous diet is eggs, and we haven't seen those used for anything other than baking.

"...to be vegetarian you need to be an omnivore in the first place."

Disregarding the A=B logic you have going there, don't forget that there are more sentient beings in Equestria than just ponies, among them being dragons, which can apparently eat almost anything. The presence of a term for non-meat-eating-sentient-beings doesn't necessarily indicate that some of them used to eat other living things. Dragons are people too!

Two phrases more people need to keep in mind, not just for Equestria, but all aspects of life: "Never attribute to malice what is more easily attributed to stupidity", to whom I can't recall credit for; and Ockham's Razor a la Bertrand Russel: "Whenever possible, substitute constructions out of known entities for inferences to unknown entities." In short, avoid speculation, and try to stay as close to what is given as possible, using all information at your disposal.