
Sojourn with Nature: Week of July 7, 2013
Sun. ran 5 mi.
Mon. race canoe 3
Tue. ran 10
Wed. race Canoe 3
Thu. out of town
Fri. race canoe 3
Sat. ran 10
This coming week of Bastille Day:
Mon.,Wed. & Fri. race canoe 3 mi.
Tue., Thur., Sat. & Sun., run 5, 10 or 15 to total 30 or 35 mi. per week
TO EAT OR NOT TO EAT…
Say, fish. Theoretically they’re good for us. Health reasons to avoid fish are mercury and PCB in fish tissue. Mercury comes from burning coal and falls to the earth in rainfall which runs off surfaces into rivers, lakes and the oceans, then into fish and shellfish and thus to people. Small (young) fish are better. Vegetarian (non-predatory) fish are better. Wild fish are better than farmed. Freshwater fish are better than saltwater fish. We have no idea if genetically modified fish are safe for us, for other fish populations or for the food chain. It will be at least 2 generations of us before we can actually know that any GMO fish is safe, and each modification is different from the rest.
Farmed fish are fed to grow fast, are given antibiotics (which become part of us if we eat them) to keep them healthy while crowded in their pens and swim in much of their own waste. They are fed the cheapest food for maximum profit, including GMO corn and soy. That then becomes part of us.
Other considerations: fish are sentient. They suffer from nets, hooks, being out of water, being confined in pens. To some people they are pets. Fish are animal protein, which weakens our immune system as does shellfish. Mangrove swamps are being replaced by shrimp farms. That is a major loss of carbon sequestration capacity, hastening global warming.
Are we overfishing to the point that we are threatening extinction of certain species? In the case of wild fish, definitely. Do farmed fish threaten diminution or extinction of wild fish? Yes! Escapees can seriously contaminate wild fish: think disease, interbreeding, antibiotic resistance.
By the way, we don’t need fish for protein to help us run marathons fast. Ask Scott Jurek, the world record record-holder of ultra-marathons.
Note: check out Scott's book - Eat and Run.