Or not to eat fish. It’s become an unexpected question I’ve imposed upon myself over the past few weeks. I recently read Jonathan Safron Foer’s Eating Animals…it was the latest in a string of food/food industry books I’ve read over the past several years (an old post here with thoughts on some of the previous books), and I was looking forward to reading it but didn’t really expect anything too life-changing. My previous readings had made me 1) glad I don’t eat red meat/poultry, and 2) want to cook more with lovely, fresh ingredients.
But Eating Animals went past factory farms into the water, and detailed some of the practices of fish farming. I don’t know that I’ve necessarily avoided the subject, but I certainly haven’t sought out information about the fishing industry. I know I should check the Seafood Watch list from the Monterey Bay Aquarium (I even have the app on my phone) before ordering or buying fish, but that’s about as far as I’ve gotten.
I didn’t stop eating meat because I read any of these books. I stopped eating red meat during my volunteer year after college because I had unintentionally lessened my red meat intake during college (thanks to the cafeteria food), one of my housemates didn’t eat red meat, and we had a limited food budget for our household- all of these things combined made the move seem like a good thing. I stopped eating poultry in grad school, mostly because I gradually, and again unintentionally, lessened my intake, and after getting ridiculously sick after eating a turkey dog after not eating poultry for a month or two, I decided I would be done with poultry. I was never a huge fan of pork (except bacon, of course), so that wasn’t ever really an issue.
So I’ve never really intentionally made a decision to stop eating any of these things, but I’m glad I did. The more I’ve learned about factory farming and the food industry, the more I’m glad I don’t eat red meat or poultry, and, much to Ryan’s dismay, I don’t know that I ever will eat them again. But continuing to eat fish always made things seem easier- more options at restaurants, more meals to make at home that Ryan and I could share, less inconvenience when invited to someone’s house to eat. Also, I like fish. But the practices detailed in Eating Animals really made me rethink my fish consumption, and I’m actively considering cutting it out of my diet. It’s just that this time around, because I’m actively considering it, the whole process is so much different than when I gave up red meat and poultry.
On top of all this have been a few health-related things which indicate that limiting my intake of eggs and soy should be something I seriously consider, as well. I’ve been toying with the idea of starting to eat vegan at least a few days a week, but the soy thing makes that interesting, too.
So I don’t know what’s going to happen. We had salmon for dinner last night, and we have some incredibly tasty crab cakes waiting in the freezer for dinner some night, so the fish thing definitely isn’t a done deal. I want to be able to use the excuse that I don’t have the kind of time I’d like to eat the way I’d really like to, but I know that’s just an excuse. If I want to do this, I can. And so the question: to eat fish, or not to eat fish?
I have never eaten seafood because I don’t like it — even the smell makes me gag a little bit — so this has always been a non-issue for me (that said, every time I read about fish farming, I’m glad I don’t eat seafood). But I can assure that eating out in restaurants isn’t difficult as an ovo-lacto vegetarian; I can’t even remember the last time I’ve had an issue ordering something.
I’ll never go vegan, but in the past have tried doing it a couple days a week, and am thinking about trying that again (with the exception of milk in my tea). I’m just eating way too much bad stuff, and unfortunately they often involve cheese and ice cream.
A couple years into being a vegetarian, I made the decision I wasn’t going to be militant about it and try to force it or guilt it on other people. Being a vegetarian has a lot of positive environmental impacts, but I think that if you decide to go that route, you make the decisions and draw the boundaries that you’re comfortable with — it’s impossible to *completely* remove animal products from your life, and you could go crazy trying, so I think that setting your goals to *reduce* negative impacts is way more practical than trying to eradicate them.
So — you could try *mostly* eliminating fish from your diet. I don’t think it needs to be a black or white issue if you don’t want it to be. Being able to share meals with Ryan is a perfectly good reason to eat fish from time to time.
I am really looking forward to reading _Eating Animals_ — it’s on my list, I just haven’t gotten there yet!