My So-called Diet

[viscousmemories]

Following from the things I learned in my threads Ethics of Killing Animals (http://www.freethought-forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=22869) and Eating Meat (http://www.freethought-forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=22109), I have maintained a particular standard for the food I eat over the past four months.

It goes something like this: I get groceries at the co-op and pick mostly local, organic produce and only natural, humanely raised, and usually local meat and dairy when I am buying food for the house.

When I eat out, I usually choose a vegetarian option unless I'm at a place that boasts the use of natural, organic meat. (A surprising number of which happen to be fast food places like the one where I got that cheeseburger). I have cut down on my seafood consumption but it's so hard to find sustainable fish - especially when eating out - that I don't always worry about it.

I have only eaten what is probably factory-farmed meat 4-5 times this year: 2-3 trips to the dim sum restaurant (sadly can't find any dim sum places that advertise the use of natural or sustainable products) and a couple trips to the steakhouse (once for the roomie's birthday and another time from an urge).

All told I am pretty comfortable with my progress on this. I eat much less meat than I used to and it's almost always natural/sustainable when I do eat it, and I'm eating a lot more local, seasonal produce. My weak spots are dim sum and eating more healthily, since as I mentioned most of the places with natural/organic meats around here are fast food.

[viscousmemories]

I forgot to mention that I also read The Omnivore's Dilemma and Food Rules by Michael Pollan, Eating Animals by Jonathon Safran Foer and watched Food, Inc., King Corn and the first season of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, all of which played a part in my decision to eat more local and natural foods and less meat.

I also learned that terms like "organic", "natural" and "cage-free" don't always mean much, and that most places that have fish on the menu are unlikely to know the real source (not to mention breed) of said fish - so if you decide to eat only fish that you know to be sustainable you better catch it yourself or give it up. Here is an excerpt from Eating Animals:

BYCATCH

Perhaps the quintessential example of bullshit, bycatch refers to sea creatures caught by accident — except not really "by accident," since bycatch has been consciously built into contemporary fishing methods. Modern fishing tends to involve much technology and few fishers. This combination leads to massive catches with massive amounts of bycatch. Take shrimp, for example. The average shrimptrawling operation throws 80 to 90 percent of the sea animals it captures overboard, dead or dying, as bycatch. (Endangered species amount to much of this bycatch.) Shrimp account for only 2 percent of global seafood by weight, but shrimp trawling accounts for 33 percent of global bycatch. We tend not to think about this because we tend not to know about it. What if there were labeling on our food letting us know how many animals were killed to bring our desired animal to our plate? So, with trawled shrimp from Indonesia, for example, the label might read: 26 pounds of other sea animals were killed and tossed back into the ocean for every 1 pound of this shrimp.

Or take tuna. Among the other 145 species regularly killed — gratuitously — while killing tuna are: manta ray, devil ray, spotted skate, bignose shark, copper shark, Galapagos shark, sandbar shark, night shark, sand tiger shark, (great) white shark, hammerhead shark, spurdog fish, Cuban dogfish, bigeye thresher, mako, blue shark, wahoo, sailfish, bonito, king mackerel, Spanish mackerel, longbill spearfi sh, white marlin, swordfish, lancet fish, grey triggerfish, needlefish, pomfret, blue runner,black ruff, dolphin fish, bigeye cigarfish, porcupine fish, rainbow runner, anchovy, grouper, flying fish, cod, common sea horse, Bermuda chub, opah, escolar, leerfish, tripletail, goosefish, monkfish, sunfish, Murray eel, pilotfish, black gemfish, stone bass, bluefish, cassava fish, red drum, greater amberjack, yellowtail, common sea bream, barracuda, puffer fish, loggerhead turtle, green turtle, leatherback turtle, hawksbill turtle, Kemp's ridley turtle, Atlantic yellow-nosed albatross, Audouin's gull, Balearic shearwater, black-browed albatross, great black-backed gull, great shearwater, great-winged petrel, grey petrel, herring gull, laughing gull, northern royal albatross, shy albatross, sooty shearwater, southern fulmar, Yelkouan shearwater, yellow-legged gull, minke whale, sei whale, fin whale, common dolphin, northern right whale, pilot whale, humpback whale, beaked whale, killer whale, harbor porpoise, sperm whale, striped dolphin, Atlantic spotted dolphin, spinner dolphin, bottlenose dolphin, and goose-beaked whale.

Imagine being served a plate of sushi. But this plate also holds all of the animals that were killed for your serving of sushi. The plate might have to be five feet across.

So yeah, I still eat fish but I tend to favor catfish and tilapia since both are generally sustainable regardless of where they come from or how they were caught. I hate the idea of giving up shrimp, not least because it's delicious and especially since I have no compassion for them. But when I consider the ecological cost it's pretty frightening. The Monterey Bay Aquarium has a Seafood Watch (http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/seafoodwatch.aspx) program that rates restaurants by their use of sustainable fish, but there's only one certified restaurant in all of Texas, and it's a swanky place in downtown Austin. I hope to make it there some day.

[Dingfod]

Or take tuna. Among the other 145 species regularly killed — gratuitously — while killing tuna are: manta ray, devil ray, spotted skate, bignose shark, copper shark, Galapagos shark, sandbar shark, night shark, sand tiger shark, (great) white shark, hammerhead shark, spurdog fish, Cuban dogfish, bigeye thresher, mako, blue shark, wahoo, sailfish, bonito, king mackerel, Spanish mackerel, longbill spearfi sh, white marlin, swordfish, lancet fish, grey triggerfish, needlefish, pomfret, blue runner,black ruff, dolphin fish, bigeye cigarfish, porcupine fish, rainbow runner, anchovy, grouper, flying fish, cod, common sea horse, Bermuda chub, opah, escolar, leerfish, tripletail, goosefish, monkfish, sunfish, Murray eel, pilotfish, black gemfish, stone bass, bluefish, cassava fish, red drum, greater amberjack, yellowtail, common sea bream, barracuda, puffer fish, loggerhead turtle, green turtle, leatherback turtle, hawksbill turtle, Kemp's ridley turtle, Atlantic yellow-nosed albatross, Audouin's gull, Balearic shearwater, black-browed albatross, great black-backed gull, great shearwater, great-winged petrel, grey petrel, herring gull, laughing gull, northern royal albatross, shy albatross, sooty shearwater, southern fulmar, Yelkouan shearwater, yellow-legged gull, minke whale, sei whale, fin whale, common dolphin, northern right whale, pilot whale, humpback whale, beaked whale, killer whale, harbor porpoise, sperm whale, striped dolphin, Atlantic spotted dolphin, spinner dolphin, bottlenose dolphin, and goose-beaked whale.What, no baby harp seals?

[viscousmemories]

They were out clubbing. :patd:

[Lauri D]

I'm envious; as a serious meat lover, it's hard for me to contemplate how to bring it down a notch. But you have inspired me.

[viscousmemories]

I think one of the most persuasive factors for me was the amount that American's meat consumption has increased over the past 50 yrs. or so. I can't remember where I read it (though I found this site (http://www.thepoultrysite.com/articles/527/long-term-meat-production-and-consumption-trends) that shows poultry consumption up 80% since 1980) but one of those books or movies I read/saw said something about how our ancestors used to eat meat 2 or 3 times a week at most, whereas most of us eat some meat in every meal today. It is this massive, wholly unnecessary overconsumption that drives the demand for factory farmed animals, and thus causes most of the suffering food animals experience.

[Dragar]

vm, I assume shrimp covers prawn fishing as well?

How the heck am I going to find a replacement for fish...seems I'd be better eating some red meat instead!

[viscousmemories]

Isn't prawn just another name for shrimp? I thought it was.

Seriously, in some ways red meat is a better alternative.

[Dragar]

I'm so ignorant sometimes.

[livius drusus]

Slightly tangential but too cute not to post: Michael Pollan Immortalized as Heirloom Tomato (http://www.thefoodsection.com/foodsection/2010/05/michael-pollan-immortalized-as-heirloom-tomato.html)

'Michael Pollan' is an odd shaped mutant! (The tomato that is.) Egg shaped fruits are yellow with green stripes & some have little “nubbins” on the ends. Related to ‘Green Zebra’ but with a milder taste & a good amount of sweetness. Very popular in taste tests. Plus the bloom on this variety is reported to be quite showy. Nice! Named after the amazing author & teacher -whose books we highly recommend.

http://www.thefoodsection.com/.a/6a00d8341c4ec753ef0133ed3fbb67970b-pi

:aww: