kicking puppies is bad

I categorize vegetarians in many ways – but to simplify this post, I am going to place them into two groups: Ideological Vegetarians and Inertia Vegetarians. Ideological Vegetarians are those that have some clear logical or moral reason for not eating animals. Most vegetarians start out feeling this way**. Inertia Vegetarians are those who are unclear on their logic / reasoning but continue to lead a vegetarian lifestyle because they have been vegetarian long enough to make it a habit. Many vegetarians end up this way. Generally Inertia Vegetarians will borrow the “it is wrong to eat animals” idea from the Ideological Vegetarians whenever the need arises to justify their lifestyle. But when questioned further (about the fuzzy gray areas), they often have difficulty justifying their positions.

Anyways, it has recently come to my attention that I am more of an Inertia Vegetarian than an Ideological Vegetarian. I’m not saying that there is no reasoning behind my vegetarianism. I find the practices of the meat industry in the United States horrifying. I’m also aware of the extreme impact that eating meat has on our environment (i.e. More that 1/3 of all fossil fuels produced in the United States go towards animal agriculture and the production of one calorie of animal protein requires more than ten times the fossil fuel input as a calorie of plant protein). So there *are* reasons that I am currently vegetarian. The problem comes when I look at the fuzzy areas…

As far as environmental impact goes, there is certainly a gradient of impact. Beef production has a much larger negative environmental impact than sustainably-produced fish. Generally, the environmental impact correlates nicely with an animal’s level of cognizance. Farming cognizant animals (like cows) tends to have a much higher environmental impact than farming less cognizant animals (like fish). In fact, the literature on fish cognition shows that fish generally fall slightly above insects but far below other vertebrates in their performance on most cognitive tasks (like memory).

So here is where my hypocrisy comes out. I kill flies and spiders in my house. And I don’t feel bad about it. I hate flies and spiders. And fish (especially shrimp) aren’t much more cognizant than insects. So why is it OK for me to kill flies, but not shrimp? And I’m pro-choice. After spending a bit of time as a graduate student studying cognitive development, I’m well aware of the amazing cognitive capabilities of a fetus – at least compared to a fish. Don’t get my wrong, with my potential shift away from vegetarianism to pescetarianism I still probably wouldn’t eat a human fetus. But I’m conceptually OK with someone else terminating a pregnancy even though I believe that a fetus is fairly cognizant by the end of 2nd trimester. But that is an entirely different story. I’m pretty much OK with people aborting fetuses – which means (on some level) I’m ok with sentient beings being killed. This means my argument about not eating fish because it involves killing a sentient being is pretty screwed. That leaves the environmental reasoning, but sustainably produced fish don’t have the horrible negative impact on our environment that other meat production does. And I do all sorts of other things that have a fairly negative impact on our environment. Right now I am sitting in my air conditioned office with my space heater on. So my argument that I don’t eat fish because of the environmental impact is also pretty screwed. That doesn’t leave me with much…

So why don’t I (currently) eat fish? I hate fuzziness. It is easy to draw an imaginary line at “meat” — and not have to think about the issue. Vegetarianism fits nicely into a clean little box. I like it when my moral stance fits nicely into a clean little box. I don’t have to think. Thinking is hard. It makes my brain hurt. If I start eating fish again, then I have to think about poultry. Poultry certainly isn’t *that* sentient. And the environmental impact of raising poultry is certainly less than the impact from raising beef or pork. So maybe I should add both fish and poultry back to my diet. This (most likely) won’t happen. But if I decide *not* to eat poultry, because I think it *is* sentient and I think it has *enough* of an environmental impact, then what about eggs? I currently eat eggs (they fall outside the nice little vegetarian box) even though most of the eggs produced in the US still use battery cages (which means the sentient chickens are being horribly abused; watch the video at: Wegman’s Cruelty for more disturbing information on this). There are all sorts of fuzzy messy things to think about if you aren’t just going to be “vegetarian”.

Vegetarianism is such a clean and easy concept: no meat. Killing animals is bad. When I get into pescetarian, then I have to think about drawing boundaries. Do I eat all fish? Do I stick with shellfish (they are basically insects, and are mostly non-sentient***), or do I choose from the “Sustainable Seafood Guide’s” list of acceptable choices. If I use the SSG’s list, do I only go with fish in the “better choices” category, or is it OK to eat fish from the “moderate risk” category and just avoid the “best to avoid” group. I hate all the fuzziness. In the end my protein and iron levels are low, and I am going to eat fish again (but not without feeling slightly guilty).

**Theoretically, most vegetarians start as Ideological, unless they chose the lifestyle to impress a member of the opposite sex. Based on drunken conversations with numerous vegetarian/vegan friends this is more common than you would think. Based on these same conversations, becoming vegetarian is apparently a pretty good way to get into another vegetarian’s pants…

*** This depends on your definition of sentient. Traditionally it is limited to higher order mental functions including awareness, reasoning and consciousness. More liberal definitions can include functions relating to information processing such as learning, memory and problem solving.

On a completely unrelated note: Don’t ask me why I was looking at ‘Special License Plates’ in Oklahoma. But they made me sad…