The Straits Times
ST Online Forum
Oct 4, 2010
Let's be mindful of what we consume
I REFER to Mr Paul Chan's letter ("'No meat, no fish' ideology can disturb eco balance"; Sept 26). First of all, let me clarify that I am not a vegetarian.
Mr Chan attacks the editorial ("No shark's fin, no meat"; Sept 5), as being "founded on flawed logic" and "unnatural". However his arguments too, are decidedly unconvincing.
Certainly, the right adjustments of the dietary habits of humans will not result in an apocalyptic end to the world.
To say that we have to "kill animals from land and sea to survive" and that we cannot survive on rice and vegetables alone is sweeping and quite simply illogical. Buddhist monks survive on just that - rice and vegetables, supplemented with beans. Depending on which survey one reads, up to 40 per cent of the population of India is vegetarian. Numerous families in Singapore, Buddhists and Hindus mainly, are vegetarian and quite happily and healthily so. In short, we do not have to slaughter to survive.
The option not to eat endangered species (and I personally have this commitment) is an ethical one. Humans are an example of apex (or top-level) predators out of control. History is strewn with the carcasses of species obliterated by man. The act of finning a shark, by cutting off fins and tossing the still alive but now finless shark overboard is considered by many (omnivores including) an act of barbarism. Sharks breathe by swimming, so oxygen-rich water rushes over their gills. Finless sharks, therefore, are condemned to suffocate.
Sharks, whales and blue-fin tuna, as well as their various prey species, have been in the oceans long before the advent of commercial fishing and whaling. Simple resource availability controls the balance in their populations - when there is less prey, predator numbers will fall as well. "Infestation" by whales, sharks and tuna will not happen. "Recovery" will be a better term.
What is special about humans is that we have become so successful because we are intelligent enough to produce force multipliers, like guns and fishing nets, and we are social, thus multiplying our capabilities further. We have now become a menace to the environment, depleting resources and species, and upsetting ecosystems like no species has done before. However, it is precisely this intelligence that lets many of us see the folly of indiscriminatory, unsustainable hunting.
Admittedly, meat will perhaps always form a part of the diet of some people but we should be mindful of the amount that is being consumed. The current wasteful carnage is certainly unsustainable in the long run and is extremely unhealthy.
Fam Shun Deng
Vice-President
Southeast Asian Biodiversity Society
