Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with vegetarian and fish

Should vegetarians eat marine creatures?

jpg15 — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 20:15:56 -0800

Should vegetarians eat fish? How about shrimp? Mollusks? I'm a recent vegetarian convert, having read Peter Singer's seminal work. It took me about 30 minutes to realize that this is what I needed to do.

Singer only devotes two pages to the subject of marine life, and it lacks the authority that most of his writing carries (he notes this at the beginning of the section). There are a small number of for/against webpages, but I'm very interested hearing in the rationales of practicing vegetarians.

The question, as Singer always puts it, is whether or not the animal in question "has interests" and whether or not it can suffer, in the sense that humans can. Most people agree, for example, that insects do not. What about the various marine creatures? My instinct tells me that they do not, but this is based on scant data.

Yes, but where will they live?

jadepearl — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 14:56:37 -0800

Help me match meat dishes.. What meat dish will not clash and pair well with a salmon fillet rubbed with paprika, brown sugar, thyme and black pepper? I am having a party and the one standout fish dish that I can do is salmon which the other party goers may or may not like. I am doing fish as one of the mains because some guests are pescatarians. Any suggestions are welcome.

Cheap, healthy places to catch a bite in London?

ontic — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 17:24:38 -0800

Cheap, healthy places to catch a bite in London? I'm going to be spending some time in London and have to live on a bit of a budget with the exchange rates being what they are. That said, I don't want to be cooking every single meal in my apartment and miss being in the city. Bonus points for vegetarian and/or fish-but-not-fish-and-chips opportunities.

Thanks!

Should I stop being vegetarian?

anonymoose — Sat, 05 Nov 2005 13:47:02 -0800

Should I stop being vegetarian (Well, pescaterian, really)? Arguments for or against welcome. About 7 years ago, I went vegetarian (lacto-ovo vegetarian) for moral grounds; I didn't want to take more life than I had to. After a few years of that, my diet gradually shifted from a relatively healthy diet of tofu and stuff to a diet of mostly cheese, bread, and fake soy-based meat products. This was relatively painful to my intestines (which I now believe to be the start of my IBS), and I decided to add fish to my diet, as fish didn't seem relatively sentient (I use the word sentient here incorrectly, because I'm not sure what the correct word would be. I mean that while fish feel pain and such, they don't seem to have quite as developed a sense of suffering as, say, a dog. This is perhaps just a skewed perspective, and I just empathize more with a dog because it is a mammal, and I can better notice its distress)

Anyway, I've been on a pescatarian diet (veggie+fish) for several years, and I'm starting to lose my resolve, mostly because my diet is becoming extremely restricted as I try to learn how to fight off the symptoms of IBS. I'm considering adding poultry to my diet. Should I?

Looking for: Arguments for or against vegetarianism. Discussions of relative damage to environment/relative suffering inflicted/etc of different diets, etc. Discussion of health benefits/health problems caused by different diets. People treat chickens and turkeys not so well, eh?