Whether or not fish suffer, it seems people are mostly ok with the existence of “suffering farms” as long as they’re out of sight. It’s just a nasty fact about people. And once you allow yourself to notice suffering, you start noticing that it’s everywhere. There’s a good book “Pilgrim at Tinker Creek” where the author lives in a cabin in the woods to be close to nature, and then gradually starts to notice how insects are killing each other in horrible ways all the time, under every leaf, for millions of years.
And so, whether or not fish suffer, maybe I should try to be less ok with “suffering farms” in general. Though if I take one too many steps on that road, people will kind of take me for a loony—but maybe it’s still worth it?
The strongest counterarguments against this point of view that I know are based on some kind of human specialness. Like, all these things in nature sure do eat each other in horrible ways, but they were doing it before we came along, and none of them would feel the slightest remorse about eating me. That maybe makes it ok for me to catch and eat them—but farming them still seems bad. Let’s farm plants, and hope they don’t feel too much pain.
Whether or not fish suffer, it seems people are mostly ok with the existence of “suffering farms” as long as they’re out of sight. It’s just a nasty fact about people. And once you allow yourself to notice suffering, you start noticing that it’s everywhere. There’s a good book “Pilgrim at Tinker Creek” where the author lives in a cabin in the woods to be close to nature, and then gradually starts to notice how insects are killing each other in horrible ways all the time, under every leaf, for millions of years.
And so, whether or not fish suffer, maybe I should try to be less ok with “suffering farms” in general. Though if I take one too many steps on that road, people will kind of take me for a loony—but maybe it’s still worth it?
The strongest counterarguments against this point of view that I know are based on some kind of human specialness. Like, all these things in nature sure do eat each other in horrible ways, but they were doing it before we came along, and none of them would feel the slightest remorse about eating me. That maybe makes it ok for me to catch and eat them—but farming them still seems bad. Let’s farm plants, and hope they don’t feel too much pain.