“You do not have to be a vegetarian, just eat less meat.”
My wife Elfa and I are pescatarians. This is not a rare disease or a religious cult. This word defines those whose diet includes fish and seafood, but not the meat of other animals.
We became vegetarians while living in Israel at the time when our youngest daughter Tamar (who remained a vegetarian throughout her life) was born.
Some people, who discover that I have not eaten meat for many years, ask me if I can feel the difference. My answer is always “No”, since I cannot compare myself today to who I was many years ago. But in general, at the age of 67, I feel good most of the time, and do not have any cravings or desire to eat meat.
When we lived in Riga, Latvia where I was born, my father managed a government meat store. Despite the scarcity of many products in the stores, we always had meat in our household.
There are many reasons why people decide not to eat meat. Shortly after moving to San Francisco in 1980, we met a nutritionist who advised us to start adding fish to our diet in order to get the protein that we might have been lacking as vegetarians.
We know some people who after trying to be vegetarians, went back to eating meat.
According to the Bible, when humans were vegetarians when they were created. Only after the flood did God allow generations after Noah to start eating meat. Since meat was always expensive, only in our generation and in richer countries, have people consumed more meat.
Certainly consuming too much fish and seafood products can have their own health concerns, such as the health effects of mercury ingestion. But, according to the article in the National Geographic, “How to Farm a Better Fish”, the “world produces more farmed fish than beef-and that’s just the beginning”. According to the article, to produce one pound of body mass of cattle requires 6.8 pounds of feed, while fish requires only 1.1 pounds!
But what about chickens and turkeys? After all, you are reading this article after Thanksgiving night. Well, apparently, there are new ideas on how to have the festive dinner (possibly any day of the year) without overstuffing yourself. According to theSan Francisco Chronicle Sunday article, “For Thanksgiving 2014, turkey takes a backseat”, “vegetables are the new meat”.
In our affluent society we can choose what to eat. We can choose any kind of diet and develop a taste for different foods. In my view, we do not have to kill animals, like those creatures I met and photographed in the natural environment of The Sea Ranch, just to satisfy our cravings.
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