Often, when people start thinking about reducing their meat consumption, their thoughts turn to seafood. Unfortunately, if your goal in consuming fewer meat-based meals is to eat more efficiently, reduce your carbon footprint, and free up more resources, then seafood is no better option than beef, chicken or pork.
All seafood arrives on your dinner plate from one of two sources: it’s either caught by commercial fishing boats or raised on fish farms. About half of the seafood we eat is wild-caught, but commercial fishing creates a lot of greenhouse gas emissions because fishing boats use a lot of fuel.
There are also other environmental problems with wild-caught seafood. First, 69 percent of the world’s major fish species are endangered and in decline, according to estimates by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. Second, many commercial fishing methods do a lot of environmental harm. For example, trawling scrapes up everything in its path, turning delicate marine ecosystems into undersea deserts, while long-line fishing results in a tremendous amount of bycatch, fish that are hooked unintentionally and discarded in pursuit of the target species.
Aquaculture, or fish farming, poses many of the same problems as the process of farming other animals for food. If farmed fish and shellfish eat grain and soy, then raising them commercially is as inefficient as fattening cattle or hogs. If the farmed fish eat fish meal, which is made from wild- caught fish, then they contribute indirectly to the environmental problems caused by commercial fishing: greenhouse gas emissions, over-fishing, bycatch, and environmental degradation.
The next time you go grocery shopping or order a meal in a restaurant, don't think exclusively about flavor and price. Give some thought as well to the long-term environmental effects of the food you choose to eat. It makes a difference.
Sources:
- Global warming statistics: The global warming calculations are based on information from “Diet, Energy, and Global Warming,” by Gidon Eshel and Pamela A. Martin of the University of Chicago.
- Water statistics: The water figures are based on information in “Water Footprint of Nations,” a report by the 2004 UNESCO Institute for Water Education.
- Land statistics: The land statistics are based on information from the “Quantification of the environmental impact of different dietary protein choices,” by Lucas Reijnders and Sam Soret, which appeared in a 2003 supplement to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition and on the protein output per acre for soy and peanuts reported in the 1996 edition of Food, Energy, and Society, edited by Pimentel and Pimentel.
