Kenny Torella

I have always viewed it or long viewed it as kind of less sinful than meat and chicken.

But when I read your piece, I went straight to my refrigerator and I put the lox in the freezer and tried not to think about it.

And it will be a while, I'm telling you truthfully, before I eat fish again.

So I wonder, Kenny, at the end of the day, should we just not be eating fish?

Well, I don't think the choice necessarily needs to be all or nothing.

I myself am a longtime vegan, but I tell people all the time that simply just eating less meat, especially from the species that tend to be treated the worst, like fish, but also chickens, that can make a really big difference.

But I also learned something really interesting.

Some fish species are just way less farmable than others.

A project called Fair Fish analyzed how certain species are farmed and whether their farming conditions could ever be compatible with their behavioral and welfare and environmental needs.

And Fairfish found that out of the hundred species they analyzed, only two had the potential to be treated decently on farms.

And those were tilapia and carp.

And to be clear, this doesn't mean they are treated decently.

You know, most tilapia and carp farms tend to overcrowd their animals.

They face a lot of disease and other welfare problems.

But to me, that study was really illuminating in that it showed that

how quickly the seafood industry has domesticated and commercialized fish production without taking a break to say, well, what do they need?

Does this make sense?

Should we be much more selective with the species we farm?

And

One person I talked to, Becca Franks, she's an environmental studies professor at New York University, had a bolder position.