Editing Benjamin Franklin (section)

===Vegetarianism===
Franklin became a vegetarian when he was a teenager apprenticing at a print shop, after coming upon a book by the early vegetarian advocate [[Thomas Tryon]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Kaiser |first1=Larry |title=What Benjamin Franklin Really Said About Vegetarianism |url=https://www.vrg.org/history/benjamin_franklin.htm |website=The Vegetarian Resource Group |access-date=February 8, 2020}}</ref> In addition, he would have also been familiar with the moral arguments espoused by prominent vegetarian [[Quakers]] in the colonial-era [[Province of Pennsylvania]], including [[Benjamin Lay]] and [[John Woolman]]. His reasons for vegetarianism were based on health, ethics, and economy:

{{Blockquote|When about 16 years of age, I happen'd to meet with a book written by one Tryon, recommending a vegetable diet. I determined to go into it ... [By not eating meat] I presently found that I could save half what [my brother] paid me. This was an additional fund for buying books: but I had another advantage in it ... I made the greater progress from that greater clearness of head and quicker apprehension which usually attend temperance in eating and drinking.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin |url=https://archive.org/details/autobiographyofb20203gut |chapter=Part One |first=Benjamin |last=Franklin}}</ref>}}

Franklin also declared the consumption of fish to be "unprovoked murder."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Richards |first1=Jennie |title=Benjamin Franklin said "Eating Flesh is Unprovoked Murder" |url=https://www.humanedecisions.com/benjamin-franklin-said-eating-flesh-is-unprovoked-murder/ |website=Humane Decisions |date=January 20, 2016 |access-date=February 8, 2020}}</ref> Despite his convictions, he [[Pescetarianism|began to eat fish]] after being tempted by fried cod on a boat sailing from Boston, justifying the eating of animals by observing that the fish's stomach contained other fish. Nonetheless, he recognized the faulty ethics in this argument<ref>{{cite web |last1=Lamb |first1=Camille |title=Ben Franklin Practiced Vegetarianism |url=https://www.miaminewtimes.com/restaurants/ben-franklin-practiced-vegetarianism-6599949 |website=Miami New Times |date=April 9, 2012 |access-date=February 8, 2020}}</ref> and would continue to be a vegetarian on and off. He was "excited" by [[tofu]], which he learned of from the writings of a Spanish missionary to Southeast Asia, [[Domingo Fernández Navarrete]]. Franklin sent a sample of [[soybean]]s to prominent American botanist [[John Bartram]] and had previously written to British diplomat and Chinese trade expert [[James Flint (merchant)|James Flint]] inquiring as to how tofu was made,<ref name="feast">{{cite web |title=Benjamin Franklin on Food |url=http://feastandphrase.com/gastronomy-and-non-fiction/benjamin-franklin-on-food/ |website=Feast and Phrase |access-date=February 8, 2020 |archive-date=January 24, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200124192047/http://feastandphrase.com/gastronomy-and-non-fiction/benjamin-franklin-on-food/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> with their correspondence believed to be the first documented use of the word "tofu" in the English language.<ref>{{cite book|title=History of Tofu and Tofu Products (965 CE to 2013)|last1 = Shurtleff|first1 = William|author-link=William Shurtleff | last2 = Aoyagi| first2 = Akiko|year=2013|isbn=9781928914556|page=73|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gGrUNvZt0_YC&pg=PA73 |publisher=Soyinfo Center}}</ref>

Franklin's "Second Reply to ''Vindex Patriae,''" a 1766 letter advocating self-sufficiency and less dependence on England, lists various examples of the bounty of American agricultural products, and does not mention meat.<ref name="feast" /> Detailing new American customs, he wrote that, "[t]hey resolved last spring to eat no more lamb; and not a joint of lamb has since been seen on any of their tables ... the sweet little creatures are all alive to this day, with the prettiest fleeces on their backs imaginable."<ref>{{cite web |title="Homespun": Second Reply to "Vindex Patriae" |url=https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-13-02-0003 |website=Founders Online |publisher=National Archives: National Historical Publications and Records Commission |access-date=February 8, 2020}}</ref>