Pescetarianism

Pescetarianism (or pesco-vegetarianism) is a semi-vegetarian dietary choice, in which a person, known as a pescetarian, eats any combination of vegetables, fruit, nuts, beans and fish or other non-mammalian sea food, but will not eat mammals or birds. Some animal products like eggs and dairy may or may not be part of a pescetarian diet plan.

Terms like "pesco-vegetarianism" are sometimes used to describe pescetarianism, to emphasize that pescetarians eat vegetables, fruit, and grains as well as fish. However, this term is controversial and less used, in part because it implies that pescetarianism is a type of vegetarianism, and some vegetarian groups do not want to be aligned with fish eaters. The Vegetarian Society, which initiated popular use of the term vegetarian as early as 1847, does not consider pescetarianism a valid vegetarian diet. Some other entities accept pescetarianism as a valid vegetarian diet, including MedicineOnline.com, Vegetarian.LifeTips.com, and the Centre for Cancer Education. The definitions of "vegetarian" in authoritative, mainstream dictionaries vary.

In July 2008 The Associated Press reported that Merriam-Webster Inc. has added more than 100 new entries to its new edition of the Collegiate Dictionary; one of those words was pescetarian. The definition of the word according to that dictionary is: "vegetarian whose diet includes fish."

Terminology

The root of pesco- is ultimately from piscis the Latin for fish. However, the vowel e suggests that it has been taken via other Romance languages such as Italian (pesce).

"Pescetarian" is the only term for this diet. (While the Italian pesce is pronounced /ˈpeˌʃe/, the English term is usually pronounced with a hard "c".) "Piscivore" is not a pescetarian because a piscivore diet relies on only fish, formed by analogy with "carnivore".

Rationale

Transition to vegetarianism

For some, becoming either vegan or vegetarian is a long-term goal for various health, environmental, and ethical reasons, and the pescetarian diet is sometimes seen as a way to transition towards that long-term goal without having to switch overnight from the western pattern diet to a vegan or vegetarian diet.

Health benefits

One of the most commonly cited reasons is that of health, based on findings that red meat is detrimental to health in many cases due to non-lean red meats containing high amounts of saturated fats. Furthermore, eating certain kinds of fish raises HDL levels, and some fish are a convenient source of omega-3 fatty acids, and have numerous health benefits in one food variety.

It can be claimed conversely that fish also contain toxins such as mercury and PCBs, though a careful selection of fish can ensure a low-risk or toxin-free product.

Differentiating seafood from other animal food sources

Pescatarians may believe that seafood is more acceptable to consume while killing more advanced land-dwelling animals is less acceptable. Generally these arguments fall into two categories: the belief that the ethics of slaughtering and consuming animals fall into a spectrum -- from microbe, to cockroach, and so on, until Chimp and Neanderthal -- putting more primitive (non-mammalian) sea creatures nearer the beginning of the spectrum; or that the environmental impact of farming sea-dwelling creatures is smaller.

Ability to feel pain

Further information: [[:Pain and nociception in other species, Pain reception in fish, and Lobster#Capacity_for_pain]]

Some pescetarians believe that eating mammals and birds is more unethical than eating fish. Reasons include both cognitive differences and ability to feel pain. Scientific studies seeking to answer the question of whether fish and other aquatic animals feel pain have yielded mixed conclusions.

Environmental ethics

Some pescetarians view red meat as an inefficient food source. Most cattle, pigs and chickens that supply the United States meat market are not free range. Instead, they are fed grains that are grown for the sole purpose of animal feed. The amount of calories in the grain needed to feed a cow, pig, or chicken (to a lesser extent) greatly exceeds the nutritional value of the meat these animals provide. Were this grain to be used for human consumption instead, far more food could be provided.

This view is complicated by the fact that farming carnivorous fish species requires larger inputs of wild fish for feed than do non-carnivorous fish. Demand for "wild caught" fish may reflect this concern as well as a broader ethical position of rejecting the farming of animals, and the perceived health benefit of avoiding farmed varieties of some species such as salmon. Wild caught sealife is however, subject to contamination from whatever toxins are in the waters, such as PCBs and mercury.

A 2006 report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations ("Livestock's Long Shadow") estimates that livestock are responsible for roughly 18 percent of the global warming effect, outstripping even the contribution of transportation. The main greenhouse gases produced by livestock are methane — the natural result of digestion — and the nitrogen emitted by manure, as well as nitrous oxides. Furthermore, the deforestation needed for grazing lands also contributes to global warming, by eliminating the CO₂ sinks that forests provide. Thus some pescetarians choose their diet in an attempt to reduce "livestock's long shadow."

Comparisons to other diets

Pescetarianism is similar to a traditional Mediterranean diet, which focuses on seafood, grains, fruits, and vegetables. However, the Mediterranean diet does not entirely exclude meat from land animals as pescetarianism does. While pescetarians and vegetarians often cite similar reasons in selecting their dietary choices, pescetarianism is not a type of vegetarian diet. Vegetarians do not consume the flesh of any animal, including sea animals; any diet that includes fish or other sea animals is not a vegetarian diet. However, since pescetarians do not eat mammal-meat or bird-meat, they experience many of the same social pressures as vegetarians, so that the two groups may sometimes seemingly have common interests. Occasionally — and controversially — terms such as pesco-vegetarian and semi-vegetarian have been used in place of the term pescetarian.

While both groups often cite environmental issues as a rationale behind their diets, pescetarian and vegetarian diets can be each environmentally imperfect if precautions are not taken, due to the problems of overfishing, by-catch and in both diets, habitat destruction through arable farming.

External links

• What is a pescetarian?
• Pescetarian Life