I watched ‘Ocean with David Attenborough’ and was horrified by the sins we’ve committed against the earth within a single generation. Two modern fishing methods really struck me - bottom trawling, and scallop dredging.
Bottom trawlers are commercial fishing boats with huge cone-shaped nets that are kept open at the mouth and dragged on the sea floor over long distances to catch bottom-dwelling species like shrimp, cod, flounder, and crabs; but in the process they collect a lot of “bycatch,” killing many other species that we don’t eat, and smash corals and sponges with the wheels and metal plates that are attached to nets.
Scallop dredgers are similar but worse. The rigging is almost the same, except this time the net is weighed down using metal teeth, and the species of interest is only one - scallops. The metal teeth scrape and plough through the sea bed to unearth their target, destroying the seafloor and whatever lives on it and underneath it.
“What a wasteful way to catch fish,” says Attenborough, and I agree.
But we’ve been hunting for over 2 million years and I believe we must continue to do so. Not only because plant-based diets are missing in essential nutrients that we can only get from animals, but because hunting is an essential skill that’s too important for us to unlearn, that we should carry forward as a species.
I don’t believe in vegetarianism, veganism, and the general concept of not consuming animals for food, whether for altruistic reasons (the belief that it is the moral right of animals to live) or for the anti-commodification of animals (the argument that animals should not be treated as legal property or commercial goods).
Well, for the latter, I do support the argument to some extent: animals should not be treated as commodities only if they’re not treated humanely. We’ve been practicing animal husbandry since 8000 BCE. That’s 10,000 years, give or take. But factory farming began in the 20th century - practically yesterday - and that’s where all the problems began, because that’s when we stopped treating animals humanely. My point is, it is okay that we kill animals, “it’s just food chain bro,” that’s how the world works, that’s how it has always worked; but must we be cruel to the them? Can we not raise them with compassion and kindness and then kill them?
To put my money where my mouth is, I did give veganism a shot, specifically to oppose animal cruelty. For a year and a half circa 2018, I followed a vegan diet. And it did not work. During that time my body saw its worst health ever. The first problem with veganism is that that diet lacks essential nutrients that we can obtain only from animals, so it goes out the window there itself. Now, you could argue that one can get whatever’s missing through supplements, which brings me to my second problem. It is not ideal to use supplements, it’s best to get whatever you want from whole foods, but even if you were open to supplementation, it is far too darn expensive to follow a vegan diet. In India particularly, it is almost impossible. During that one and a half year, it was so difficult to eat anything outside. Every vegetarian item I would order would have something that I would realize upon ordering, I could not eat. The sandwich has cheese? Bam! I can’t eat that! The bread is milk bread? Bam! Can’t have that either! Due to all of these problems, after giving veganism a fair shot, I went back to eating meat. I felt like a computer rebooting, just like Anne Hathaway did.
More recently, to solve my “I don’t mind eating meat, I only mind animal cruelty” problem, I have thought about going for free range eggs and chicken, but they aren’t easily accessible and / or are too expensive for me, at least at the moment. You may argue that I’m merely making excuses, and you may well be right.
But let me ask: why can I not have my own place, keep my own animals, kill them myself, and live the life that we were all supposed to live? I think that if I were to slaughter animals for food myself, having committed the act of killing, I would always know the value of a life. I don’t think I know it right now. The commercialization of meat, eggs, and dairy has made us forget the value of a life. When I go to the butcher’s, or these days, when I order chicken online, all I have to do is press a few buttons to send money to the vendor and voila, I get chicken! How can I, or anyone, for that matter, realize what the value of a life when it’s so easy? Why have we come to this point? Was this state of affairs always supposed to be a natural consequence of progress, or could it have been avoided had we been more mindful? Could progress have been possible without all of this destruction? Could we have progressed in a more sustainable manner? Who is to blame? Is it industrialization? Why are we here? What are we doing?
I dream of a country where we could live with nature and with each other in harmony, where sustainability not only matters but is also implemented in a way that’s practical, a country where I can have all of this and also live safely without the threat of being stomped upon by the powerful and the mighty, a country where there’s no corruption. That’s the country I dream of, and I don’t believe that country is this. Why is it not? There are other countries where this type of a life is possible, at least to some extent. I think about moving to Sweden, having my own house, my own little farm-type thing, with my own animals who I will treat with compassion and breed and kill. But the point is, why do I have to move away for this? Why can I not have it here, where I already am? Or maybe I can, and I’m just not brave enough to go for it? Or worse, could it be that all of this doesn’t actually matter to me and the truth is that I’m just a hypocrite?
Why does bodybuilding have to feel like a wasteful activity? It feels that way, given the destruction and environmental impact that I alone have on this world. Many times more than the average person (well, at least the average person in India), with the amount of non-vegetarian food I consume on a daily basis. Why do I have to feel guilty when I’m doing what I’m supposed to do? Am I not supposed to be strong and powerful and have the body of a fighter? Bodybuilding feels wasteful only in this modern age where you can buy a kilo of chicken for a cheap price and chomp it down without giving a thought to how doing this every single day is affecting other lives, what bad karma you’re collecting, what kind of carbon footprint you’re leaving. It wouldn’t feel wasteful if I had done this very thing a couple of centuries ago, would it? If I was hunting for myself in a habitat was rich with game and raising my own animals. But then, could I possibly still have overdone it and have had an outsized negative impact on the environment? I think probably not.
