Excerpt: Tides of Humanity ((Rewrite))

Ellen seemed over-excited to order some strange sounding food that Stephen and the Turk had never heard of. Though the menus were the same ones that they had used in the restaurants on Earth, they noticed a big difference – there were no beef products or pork products. The menu was largely vegetarian with a few fish or poultry dishes. There was also another meat listed that was the most expensive item on the menu: Mammoth steaks.
“Mammoth steaks? What kind of cows do those come from?” Stephen asked.
“Not quite cows.” Ellen explained, “Actual Martian mammoths.”
“Are these the same mammoths I'm thinking of?”
“The woolly elephant things?”
“Yes, what else?” He smirked.
“Well yes.” She smiled and sipped from a glass of water.
The Turk chuckled loudly, “What kind of fool do you think we are? That's preposterous!”
“No, let me explain” she said, setting the glass down. “On Mars they've got a lot of genetically engineered plants and animals. They story goes, that because the atmosphere constantly bleeds, you can't harvest or destroy plants. It's literally a crime there. For ages the colonies relied on imported food from earth, but after the war it became too expensive and Earth used most of their own resources. The colonies used up their supplies of proteins and vitamins within a few months.”
“So the logical idea was to make mammoths.” Stephen said sarcastically.
“Let me finish! They held a contest for people to come up with a solution that could be sustainable, wouldn't use up plant life, and could be reproduced rapidly. They decided it would have to be some sort of farm animal that could be fed synthesized pellets for food. There were a couple of winners, but mammoths took over as the most popular due to their hardiness in the harsh cold climate and the amount of meat they provided. Not to mention the media sensation! People from all over the solar system came to see the first mammoths being born from the gestation vats.”
“Have you ever tried it yourself?” The Turk asked.
“No,” Ellen replied, “Like most people my age, I'm a vegetarian. Meat doesn't settle well with me.”
“More for us then!” Stephen exclaimed, and order himself a Mammoth burger. The Turk ordered a Mammoth stroganoff.
The Turk inquired, “Are there any other extinct creatures living on Mars?”
Ellen nodded enthusiastically, “Quite a few actually. Someday they hope to have a fully functioning ecosystem. Besides all the insects engineered to help pollinate the plants and help with decomposing; there are woolly pigs, dogs and cats, and some sort of field mouse. Though all the animals have been tweaked in some way to be better suited towards life on Mars. The dogs and cats are probably a lot heartier than you're used to seeing here.
“Oh and the field mice is a funny story. See, they're wild and they eat plant life so they're kind of a mistake. Apparently when they open sourced the gene banks to speed up the contest, some sort of mad scientist took some mouse genes, made them big, hearty, and furry and then just let them loose. It's illegal to keep any as pets now since they breed so rapidly and they exterminate them in huge batches every day but they keep turning up!”
Stephen nodded, “Like rabbits in Australia. Introduced to a continent with no natural predators and they just started breeding like crazy. Have they thought about making some wild predators?”
“That's what the cats were engineered for.” She smirked, “Though the top predator on Mars is no doubt the Martian colonists themselves. You know they eat the exterminated mice? They toss them in a soup that eliminates the toxins and then ground them up into some sort of mouse chili. It's completely revolting!”
The Turk chuckled, “You didn't see much of the cuisine in Earth's parks did you? Mouse chili would sound pretty appetizing to a lot of the urchins in the park.”
“I'm sorry,” She sighed, “I'm just not used to such overt carnivorous behavior. It's like the people on Mars are changing. The youngest generation almost seems to takes pride in their new vegetable free diet. I can't imagine they'll live very long without any plants in their diet. Even when visiting Venus, those rebellious Martian youth just mock our vegetarian lifestyle.”
Stephen shrugged, “I don't see how they can be entirely carnivorous. A lot of vitamins and amino acids can only be found in plants, not to mention how many diseases are associated with high-meat diets. Even the Turk and I knew the importance of our veggies, right Turk?” he Jabbed the Turk in the shoulder with his elbow.
She nodded, “Actually, they engineered the mammoths to produce very nutritious milk. Most of what a mammoth eats goes straight to their udders, so they can't live free-range. They just stay in one spot on what they call a 'Milk and Meat' farm. And to make the pellets that they feed the livestock, they essentially amped up Venusian algae farms to produce perfect green mulch for their cattle. They just form these, like, bricks of calories and protein and vitamins and shove them down their throats. Milk them for about a year, then it's off to be shaved for wool and get chopped up for someone's dinner.”
The Turk and Stephen glanced at each other. Ellen was obviously feeling very passionate about her vegetarianism. On Venus being a vegetarian wasn't much of a choice, but if the Martians were becoming patriotic about their sudden carnivorous lifestyle, it was obvious that Ellen was patriotic about her lifestyle. It was ironic that with Earth being in the middle of the two planets, it apparently had the most omnivores.