Over the last few years, Iāve had a relationship with food that seems perpetually in flux. When I was 17, I became a pescatarian because I read it was more environmentally friendly to not eat meat. Indeed, in Eating Animals, Jonathan Safran Foer notes that factory farming is more detrimental to the environment than driving; PETA states that āA staggering 51 per cent or more of global greenhouse-gas emissions are caused by animal agriculture, according to a report published by the Worldwatch Institute.ā
One year later, I took a class on philosophy and ethics with one of Douglas Collegeās own fantastic professors, Marilyn Kane. I credit this class and Kane with convincing me to become a vegetarian and cut out seafood.
This is partly because I realized Iād been arbitrarily drawing a line between the intelligent pigs, cows, and dogs I did not want to eat, and intelligent fish, although I never really bought the assertion that āfish donāt feel pain.ā
Two years later, I went back to including fish in my diet. Iāve also, on occasion, indulged in non-vegan gravy, and turkey at Thanksgiving. My flip-flopping has caused me to consider what sort of an animal- and environmentally friendly diet I can maintain.
Making ethical choices is difficult, and itās why Iāve so often strayed from vegetarianism. The choice to be a pescatarian, vegetarian, or vegan is difficult because itās ideally longterm, if not lifelong. While it isnāt impossible to grill eggplant at a barbecue, or pass on turkey at Boxing Day, it can be hard; itās a commitment, a choice you make every time you choose not to eat meat.
Forms of vegetarianism are also extremely political, although increasingly normalized. Something Iāve found over the four some-odd years that Iāve leaned away from an omnivore diet is that people really do not want to hear about animal treatment. While I understand this preference to not pull back the curtain, itās frustrating to me: itās a cop-out from making an informed decision on something that affects everyone every day.
Here are some facts:
A staggering percentageāthe vast majorityāof farming is factory farming, which employs inhumane methods. Weāre all aware in the backs of our minds what this entails: small quarters; a lack of exposure to the outdoors; maltreatment, if not deliberate cruelty. Practices to improve efficiency and ensure that meat is pristine include cutting off the ends of turkeysā and chickensā beaks, āto prevent them from attacking each other in their crowded, unnatural conditions. No anesthesia or painkiller is used,ā as LiberationBC.org reports.
Although ideally we might opt for organic, free-range animals, these are industry terms which have all but lost their meaning. As LiberationBC.org states, āThe first thing that one needs to know about labels such as āfree-range,ā āfree-run,ā ācage-free,ā and ānatural,ā is that legally, they mean very little. There are no laws specifying what these labels constitute, and hence, no third-party certification to ensure that rules are followed.ā
Commercial fishing is the brethren of factory farming: PETA reports that ā90 per cent of large fish populations have been exterminated in the past 50 years.ā This isnāt because weāre eating fish with breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but in part because of ābycatch.ā Bycatch are the animals (from sharks, to birds, to porpoises, and everything in between) that are accidentally caught due to the wide nets that are cast; these animals often die in the nets, and are thrown backāreportedly 85 per cent of the catch in shrimp trawling is bycatch, and is disposed of.
I donāt fault anyone for their dietary choices. There are a variety of reasons someone might choose not to go vegetarian; and many point out that factory farming, while undeniably cruel, might be inevitable in order to feed our ever-growing populations. Iām still figuring out what Iāll do with my diet, although Iām leaning towards selective and ethical pescatarianism. These are lifelong decisions we all negotiate with, based on where we are in life and what research we do. If you want to learn more about the subject, I highly recommend starting with the aforementioned Eating Animals.
Hello gorgeous,
Natalie Serafini
