To eat or not to eat

[liuzhou]

To eat or not to eat: 10 of the world's most controversial foods

 

Guardian article.  Although the focus is mainly on the UK, the issues raised are global. There are a few foods I'd add, but that is another story.

 

Thoughts?

[JoNorvelleWalker]

If it tastes good, not raised in unnecessary cruelty or by slave labor, not an endangered species, and not one of my 23andMe matches, I'll eat it.

 

[liuzhou]

1 hour ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

If it tastes good, not raised in unnecessary cruelty or by slave labor, not an endangered species, and not one of my 23andMe matches, I'll eat it.

 

 

 

Well, cattle are not an endangered species, but the amount being raised and the space that takes up involves deforestation etc could be endangering other lifeforms - including us!

By the way when you buy shrimp, for example, how do you know that slave labor wasn't involved it getting it to you. I've never seen a product in any supermarket labelled "Processed by Slaves". Doesn't mean the product hasn't been.

 

The problem is not simple as you seem to paint it.

 

Edited November 21, 2019 by liuzhou (log)

[heidih]

I am done with cattle and milk. The gas emissions are astounding. Avacadoes I buy if purchased from a farmer I know or a neighbor gift.(California - we do this)  Octi do trouble me a bit but I do enjy the taste/texture.Prawns  are troubling. I will only do wild and if budget allows Santa Barbara spots. The cod thing is a long standing documented issue. I think @Shelby  farms soy - perhaps she can weigh in.  Almonds are a huge issue in Caifornia - not pretty water-wise. Thoughtful shopping is the best we can do. 

 

https://oceana.ca/en/blog/fishing-cod-brink-extinction-what-lessons-can-we-learn

 

https://newrepublic.com/article/125450/heres-real-problem-almonds

[JoNorvelleWalker]

26 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

 

 

Well, cattle are not an endangered species, but the amount being raised and the space that takes up involves deforestation etc could be endangering other lifeforms - including us!

By the way when you buy shrimp, for example, how do you know that slave labor wasn't involved it getting it to you. I've never seen a product in any supermarket labelled "Processed by Slaves". Doesn't mean the product hasn't been.

 

The problem is not simple as you seem to paint it.

 

 

 

My doctor told me not to eat shrimp.  So I don't buy it.  When I used to purchase shrimp I did not source it from South East Asia.  Similarly I do not knowingly buy chocolate from West Africa.  Last I read Nestle has pledged to cease selling slave produced chocolate by 2020.

 

Beef, lamb, chickens, and pork I eat.  I eschew veal.  I did not say anything about global warming or destruction of the rainforest.  I prefer to avoid palm oil but I am not obsessive about it.  Not in the same category for me as, say, child slavery.

 

I stated my choices, what are yours?

 

 

[heidih]

Oops forgot to link my local ginormous avocado tree  I had it in my 2011 eG food blog

Edited November 21, 2019 by heidih (log)

[liuzhou]

39 minutes ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

My doctor told me not to eat shrimp.  So I don't buy it.  When I used to purchase shrimp I did not source it from South East Asia.  Similarly I do not knowingly buy chocolate from West Africa.  Last I read Nestle has pledged to cease selling slave produced chocolate by 2020.

 

Beef, lamb, chickens, and pork I eat.  I eschew veal.  I did not say anything about global warming or destruction of the rainforest.  I prefer to avoid palm oil but I am not obsessive about it.  Not in the same category for me as, say, child slavery.

 

I stated my choices, what are yours?

 

 

 

 

I didn't say you said anything about global warming or rainforests.  I merely said that one food choice can have effects beyond the immediate. Whether or not you buy shrimp, is irrelevant; I only gave that as an example.

My choices?

 

I always buy live, wild shrimp caught locally (in south-east Asia where I live!)  I nearly always eat the smaller shrimp/prawns because they are what I can get most easily live and from known sources, but also because they taste better.

 

Most of the "beef" I buy is actually water buffalo and I buy very little of that.

 

I don't eat avocados for the very reasons given in the article - deforestation and water diversion. Like you, I don't eat endangered species, but am aware that my food choices, even involving non-endangered species, have indirect consequences. 

 

I never eat what are usually called processed foods (although all foods are processed), so any palm oil consumption is low to negligible. I don't eat chocolate, because I don't particularly like it.

 

My only real point is that this is a very complicated issue.

 

Edited November 21, 2019 by liuzhou (log)

[Katie Meadow]

8 hours ago, heidih said:

I am done with cattle and milk. The gas emissions are astounding. Avacadoes I buy if purchased from a farmer I know or a neighbor gift.(California - we do this)  Octi do trouble me a bit but I do enjy the taste/texture.Prawns  are troubling. I will only do wild and if budget allows Santa Barbara spots. The cod thing is a long standing documented issue. I think @Shelby  farms soy - perhaps she can weigh in.  Almonds are a huge issue in Caifornia - not pretty water-wise. Thoughtful shopping is the best we can do. 

 

https://oceana.ca/en/blog/fishing-cod-brink-extinction-what-lessons-can-we-learn

 

https://newrepublic.com/article/125450/heres-real-problem-almonds

Very much agree. I've pretty much stopped eating beef. Lamb too is not sustainable, but we eat so little of it in America that it would be a more important consideration in some other countries. I buy wild caught gulf shrimp and try to avoid farmed fish unless it is trout from Canada or the US. It leaves us in CA with very limited variety that's sustainably fished, but I am adjusting. Twenty years ago we could buy wild salmon fresh caught on the CA coast for under $10 dollars per pound. There were also abundant fresh sardines. Neither is available any more except once in a great while.  

 

Octopus are too charming and brainy, so I don't eat them regardless. As for chocolate, the inclusion of its listing in those ten most problematic foods is worrisome. I haven't really checked out the sources of my staple chocolates, but I really should. The avocados we eat are from the farmer's market, and grown in southern CA; I just don't buy them in the off season, so they are a treat, like good tomatoes.

[Margaret Pilgrim]

I vote to curtail alfalfa to feed domestic beef, but moreover the major proportion of our crop that is pelletized and shipped to Japan for Waygu beef.   Water intensive crop, processing investment, shipping cost both ways....

Edited November 3, 2021 by Margaret Pilgrim (log)

[kayb]

I buy grass-fed beef and free range chickens and eggs, both raised locally. I tend toward buying locally-raised pork as well, though I do occasionally buy from the grocery. 

 

I have a bag of roasted almonds in the pantry that must be five years old. I do buy a fair amount of almond meal; it's a good thing for a celiac sufferer to have in the pantry. I'm not a huge fan of avocados -- can take or leave them -- and I've never consumed octopus in my life. Living within reasonable shouting distance of the Gulf of Mexico, my shrimp are always wild-caught gulf shrimp. I occasionally buy frozen tuna steaks, and have recently ordered cod and mahi from Misfits; not sure of their source. Other than that, usually my fish are locally caught bream, bass, catfish or crappie. Never have been much of one for lamb, though I'll buy ground lamb from time to time, and don't eat veal at all.

 

I buy most of my vegetables locally, and can and freeze a lot. I do confess to buying a few things out of season -- some fruit, lettuces, crucifers, and so on. But I'd say 80 percent of what I eat is produced within 100 miles of where I sit.