Republish

"The Correction: Surf, Turf…Or Plants?"

Wed October 12th, 2022

Perspective • Climate • Correction • Food

1 min read

<h1>The Correction: Surf, Turf…Or Plants?</h1>
 According to a new <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-022-00516-4?utm_medium=affiliate&amp;utm_source=commission_junction&amp;utm_campaign=CONR_PF018_ECOM_GL_PHSS_ALWYS_DEEPLINK&amp;utm_content=textlink&amp;utm_term=PID100060515&amp;CJEVENT=0e8135a848a811ed80ed02140a180512">study</a> in Nature, swapping red meat for small wild-caught marine species like herrings and anchovies as well as farmed mussels and oysters could improve nutrition and lower greenhouse gas emissions. Reporting on the study’s findings, an <a href="https://www.popsci.com/environment/fish-red-meat-sustainability-diet/">article</a> in Popular Science concludes that eating “sustainably-sourced seafood” is a good way to reduce your carbon footprint. 
One problem — as the article more or less points out but doesn’t really grapple with — is that most people are not eating herrings or sustainably farmed mussels, what the study describes as “sustainably-sourced seafood.” They’re eating wild fish from overfished populations or industrially farmed fish whose feedstocks are <a href="https://sentientmedia.org/fishmeal-factories-senegal/">depleting</a> the wild fish populations. 
Yes, seafood tends to be lower in emissions than land-based animal proteins, especially beef, but industrial fishing and aquaculture have a uniquely damaging impact. As Jan Dutkiewicz and Spencer Roberts <a class="rank-math-link" href="https://www.wired.com/story/whitewashing-seafood-blue-food/">wrote in Wired</a>:  “it <a class="rank-math-link" href="https://vbn.aau.dk/ws/files/60595513/mcintyre2972c01.pdf">depletes</a> marine life populations, <a href="https://www.smrj.sdssu.edu.ph/index.php/SMRJ/article/view/46">disrupts</a> food webs, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0025326X12001981">dredges</a> up reefs and algal beds, and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0025326X20301557">litters</a> the ocean with ghost nets,” to say nothing of the ethics of eating these creatures.  
Though the article notes early on that animal-based foods produce almost double the emissions of plant-based foods, it doesn’t return to this to consider a pescetarian diet compared to a plant-based one. According to the <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/srccl/chapter/chapter-5/5-5-mitigation-options-challenges-and-opportunities/5-5-2-demand-side-mitigation-options/5-5-2-1-mitigation-potential-of-different-diets/figure-5-12/">IPCC</a>, a vegan diet may have twice the potential of a pescetarian diet (one that includes fish but no meat) to mitigate GHG emissions. A healthy vegan diet can also have many <a href="https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200122-are-there-health-benefits-to-going-vegan">benefits</a> over one heavy on the consumption of red meat and may even outperform a pescetarian diet in some respects, but this is also left out of the article.

This article originally appeared in Sentient at <a href="https://sentientmedia.org/the-correction-october/">https://sentientmedia.org/the-correction-october/</a>.
 <img id="republication-tracker-tool-source" src="https://sentientmedia.org/?republication-pixel=true&post=28980&ga4=G-2243FCJ5G9" style="width:1px;height:1px;">

How to Republish Our Stories

We welcome republication of our work with the following guidelines:

Please credit Sentient and include the note “This story was originally published by Sentient” with a link to the original story to the words Sentient.

Please repost the story in its entirety. You are welcome to use a different headline.

Please let us know when you republish by tagging us on social media.

X
Facebook
LinkedIn
Instagram
Bluesky

Photos from Getty can be republished with the article with credit to Getty, via Sentient. Some of our photos are from We Animals Media, which are royalty-free. Please credit the original source. Original photos may also be used with credit unless otherwise noted.