Alicorn comments on Essay-Question Poll: Dietary Choices - Less Wrong

12 Post author: Alicorn 03 May 2009 03:27PM

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Comment author: Alicorn 03 May 2009 04:07:45PM *  0 points [-]

My own data point:

  1. I don't eat any air-breathing animals or cephalopods; I still eat non-cephalopod seafood.
  2. I am concerned about animal suffering, environmental impact, food efficiency, and health. (Cost and ease of preparation are also factors.) I can enjoy an excellent quality of life with this restricted diet.
  3. I do not eat meat when it's offered to me, and so far have not been hungry enough to eat it for that reason. (If I were stranded on a desert island, I would eat animals.) I sometimes order soup in restaurants without asking what kind of stock it was made with.
  4. I hope to have children and would attempt to raise them pescetarians, although I would not object if they wanted to try out meat once or twice after they got old enough to understand the reasons not to.
  5. I occasionally make attempts to convince others to cut down on meat consumption, but have met with no success.
  6. I eat an assortment of soy products, other legumes, eggs, and dairy to get my protein, and take iron supplements.
  7. I have considerable respect for people who are more restrictive than I am, until you get as far as fruitarians and the like who don't seem able to get adequate nutrition. My reasons for being a pescetarian allow that many less restrictive individuals wouldn't be well-served by changing to a diet more like mine, although I do think there isn't enough thought about the possibilities among meat-eaters.
  8. I became a pescetarian when I was seventeen, and decided a few months ago to stop eating cephalopods (although I haven't, since that decision, been presented with an opportunity to eat squid or octopus).
  9. I was never a big fan of meat in general, although I enjoyed certain dishes. The only meat that still even looks like food to me, much less appealing food, is chicken fingers.
  10. I tried to become a vegetarian when I was sixteen, but found that my limited range of tastes and reliance on school cafeteria food had me eating very poorly; this lasted only a few days. My more permanent switch came when I developed a taste for vegetables and started to learn to cook.
Comment author: loqi 03 May 2009 05:50:10PM 0 points [-]

I still eat non-cephalopod seafood

I have the impression that the environmental impact of fishing is pretty huge. If you don't mind me asking, what's your seafood rationale?

Comment author: Alicorn 03 May 2009 06:09:22PM 1 point [-]
  1. It's easier for me to be consistent about not eating other meat when I can fall back on fish (especially at restaurants - it's hard enough to find places where I can have a nice meal out with friends, since I don't like salad. If I couldn't just order the salmon at a steakhouse it would be harder.)
  2. My objections to meat-eating on the basis of health and animal suffering are greatly diminished in strength when I take the case of fish and clams and the like: they're healthful (omega-3 fatty acids and that sort of thing) and not cognitively sophisticated enough to make me worry very much about hurting them. For many species, efficiency is also not a concern (for instance, tilapia can be raised in rice paddies eating waste vegetable matter - they aren't eating food that could be used to feed people directly). The environmental impact of the fishing industry is acknowledged, but alone isn't strong enough to make me stop eating fish.
  3. I enjoy fish (and clams in clam chowder) a great deal more than I ever enjoyed other meat.