| Yeah sorry I tried to anticipate and cover this response briefly by pointing out that the population of the world simply is not going to stop eating animal protein because you told them you find it unethical. Their beliefs are not morally dissonant because they do not share your view that killing a sentient being for food is wrong. This thread is about fisheries and my argument is in support of using both wild and farmed fish as a much better alternative for protein production than land-based agriculture, whether that be in support of livestock or soy milk. Your response is "everyone should eat plants exclusively because that works for me with minimal negative unintended consequences." I also tried to point out the inherit issue with the comparison of "killing 100 billion animals each year" with "growing and eating plants" as though the latter avoids all 100 billion animal deaths. It doesn't. It might move those deaths to other species that you care less about or to a different time or make them lives that never existed rather than lives taken, but it still comes at a cost. So your premise is just incomplete and focuses entirely on the issue that seems to be most important to you personally. If "you" want to minimize your impact, stop eating animals is an argument that only works for a subset of the human population and is only an accessible solution to a fraction of that. Putting aside the gross ethnocenctricity, it simply is not going to work as a solution. The converse is that "some land is not suitable for crop agriculture but is usable for grazing" and I also routinely see that argument abused even though it is true. Some livestock are raised totally sustainably and even provide ecosystem services (trampling is good for some systems and cattle do it in lieu of the native grazers that are now gone). But that doesn't mean that all cattle can be raised at no cost. You're making that argument, just about row crops, I guess. FWIW, soy production in Brazil in the service of foreign markets is... not very sustainable even if it's not for feed [1]. I remember when I was younger and I was like, "I survive fine on <2 gallons of fresh water a day... how can there possibly be a water supply issue anywhere?" Or, more generally, "I can modify my behavior with few personal consequences to fit into a sustainable model." So that is great. Do it. But I would argue you are avoiding grappling with the full impacts of your own choices and, even if they'd be better alternatives anyway, you're failing to recognize that your choices are not available to everyone. [1] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-98256-6 |