Blogs : Food Media
Food Media CHOW's roundup of food-related news from blogs, newspapers, magazines, cookbooks, and film.
Is It Any More Ethical If Whales Are Really Delicious?
A recent BBC story ponders the following: Is it really all that terrible to eat whale meat while dining in Japan? And if that’s so bad, how about the following bits of grisly business?
I thought of halal abattoirs where cows are killed by draining out their blood, of fish impaled on steel hooks in the open ocean, of deer caught in snares waiting only for the relief of a huntsman’s bullet, the peeled but still twitching frogs that I had seen in a Bangkok market years before.
One correspondent’s gustatory dilemma provides a solid jumping-off point for considering the cultural biases that often define what makes a particular sort of animal taboo to eat—or the daily special.
Incidentally, word on the street is that horses are scrumptious.
Posted by | Thursday, May 31, 2007 at 6:38am | 4 comments
« Previous Post: Worcestershire's Worldwide Reach Next Post: The DIY Pause That Refreshes » |
This reminds of a time when some International organization was castigating the Faroe Islands for the continuation of Whale Fishing/Hunting. The representative of the Faroe Islands then responded, "If everyone had hunted whales the way the have over the last 300 hundred years, then their would be no problem. So why should we stop when it was everyone else who caused this Whale problem?" (I am para-phrasing)
Personally, I have never tried whale, but, if I were in the Faroe Islands, I would give it a try.
"everyone had hunted whales the way the have over the last
Should Be
"everyone had hunted whales the way that we have over the last "
There is only one type of ethical no-no. We should not eat endangered species (including wild plants) and we should be as humane as possible when killing other living beings. Everything else is fair game.
(oh and we shouldn't each other either)
I don't have any issue with it. I think the problem with whale is that they're (comparatively) fairly intelligent creatures - whereas the other examples given - cows, fish, deer - aren't particularly bright. Same goes for horse, but with the additional business of horses having found a place as companion to man a la dogs.
I am opposed to trap-then-shoot hunting, if only because it's not very sporting. If you're doing it to survive, that would be another thing, and I'd be fine with it - but those situations are rare. For most people, 100% of the venison they're going to eat in their life is farmed, anyway.
If you want whale, go to Northern Alaska - the Inuit still hunt them.
As for peeling forgs alive - eh, not really down with it. They could at least sever the spinal cord so they don't feel any pain - can't be too tough, we used to do it in biology class in high school.