And this is what they give awards for?
By Charlie • November 6, 2009 • 3 commentsA Scottish government campaign to get Scots to eat more fish because of the ‘health benefits’ of fish oil wins an award from the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) - but a Harvard study links excessive fish and omega-3 oil consumption to type 2 diabetes - a recent study warns that “the negative impact on blood pressure caused by the high amounts of mercury in marine fish can annul the effects of…nutrients like Omega-3″ - and just this week the IUCN announces that “more than 1,000 freshwater fish species are threatened with extinction”, while the UN noted in 2008 that 76 per cent of the world’s fisheries are fully exploited, overexploited or depleted. Way to go CIPR, way to go… .
Have you considered letting them secede?
I believe I’m allowed to say that since at least some of my ancestors are believed to be Scots.
Seriously, how to you weigh off the harm of overfishing against the environmental cost of raising beef cattle? Or the horrible way chickens are treated on commercial chicken farms? And don’t get me started on manure ponds on pig farms! Even if we gave them all hummers, a la Michael Pollan, most people wouldn’t be willing to become vegans - so what’s the responsible answer?
The responsible answer is still to advocate a vegan diet - even if people won’t follow it - the truth must be told and eventually it will catch on. Its just a matter or re-programing. Even if people strive toward it and fall short it’s still better than not trying at all.
Wren, Monica: Thanks for commenting. I think Monica has hit the nail on the head with her sentence, “Even if people strive toward it and fall short it’s still better than not trying at all”. I’m a ’striver’ in that I’m veggie while still aware that the milk I pour on my morning cereal and the cheese I like to eat occasionally still means cattle on the ground - which, whether we like it or not, means eg additional methane production, polluted waterways from manure run-off, and a system where because cows only produce milk when they’ve been pregnant means that millions of ‘unwanted’ calves are produced, taken away from their mothers at an early age, and turned into pies etc. I do think the ‘responsible’ answer is veganism, I do aim to get there eventually - but I can totally understand how foreign that must seem to a vast percentage of people who’ll be reading 10,000 Birds.