Wednesday 23 June 2010

A Tuna Escape Raises Hackles -

In this article about tuna one should be aware of the complex issues of culture and health it raises. As seafood is still one of the purest forms of brain food. The deep sea fat of these grand creatures is a prized source of such food so it is a dilemma for us as a species to be farming it out of existence with our voracious appetite. For the alternative is the farmed fish. On my travels to global organic conferences it was eye opening to learn of the amount of study being done on the habits and behaviours of the sea creatures we eat and the effects of growing them in enclosures that alter their health just as penning a hen does. Currently it is becoming the norm to find farmed salmon and trout in the shops but do you know the amount of disturbing colours added to the fish food to give them their appealing redness year round? The red in a fish is a seasonal colour and alters in accord with the breeding. The colour is a textile dye and, to all intense purposes, apparently carcinogenic - though given that just about everything these days is considered that I would not be taking too much store by this factor... that said what should we do about it? I eat a deep sea fish wild once a week. I try to eat only organic meat and poultry that I know to be handled from paddock to plate in the most respectful and considerate way of the animals habits and needs. But the argument put forward is that we cannot survive meat eating as a global population. Given that I have tried vegetarianism for many years and found it altogether difficult I can imagine that is going to be untenable for most first world inhabitants used to copious quantities of meat. And given that I recently lost 14 kilos by eating exclusively meat and no starch, the predominant dietary ingredient of the vegetarian diet, it is even harder to consider going back to it when it sits so well with my health and my hormones. It is the luxury of the wealthy to afford organic meat, so I see that I am indeed wealthy by third world standards and not an example to follow in this manner. So I see all the issues and wonder at the outcome. Maybe I, like many, will have to become vegetarian by famine rather than choice? But the tuna and the deep sea creatures that we feed on must be cared for if we are to be able to have any left for our brains to gain their precious nutrition. It seems it is the quantity we eat that is the greatest issue of the day to consider first before the entire issue is addressed? What do you think?

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