RomansFiveEight

Salmon and other types of fish breed readily and are extraordinarily plentiful. The sheer number of salmon that can be extracted from streams each years is incredible and they keep coming back.

The issue is largely in the oceans which, as they warm, they become less populated. Fish are very sensitive to the environment. Beef, pork, and even chicken is a very hardy animal that can live in a large variety of environments. I live near Dairy Farms and these cows shuffle around the fields whether it's 12 degrees with snow on the ground or 100 degrees out. They just don't care. As long as they have food, they're happy. Fish can't handle radical changes, they kind of have their one environment and that's it. Freshwater fish are a little less sensitive to that because their environment DOES change and so they have adapted thusly. Which of course, is an issue of environment. Though our environment has had swings before. At one time, Bison were a tremendous problem with emissions. They were essentially hunted out. Bison is a good alternative to beef through from a health benefit; it's far leaner. So is venison. Venison is also very plentiful and generally harvested from the wild, not farmed. Venison is probably the perfect 'beef replacement'. It's small, breeds readily, very hardy, has few natural predators. In fact, overpopulation of deer is a problem in a lot of areas even with hundreds of thousands of them being harvested by hunters each year.

And as for animals eating plants; well it's what they eat. Cows eat grass. Chickens eat the seeds of other plants. None of them eat the hearty nutritious foods like spinach, kale, and beans that we should be eating. Sure they eat corn (but they generally eat 'feed corn' which isn't what you're eating. It's been bred to be larger and grow faster but it isn't very appetizing at all.), but otherwise most of these animals are eating other grains and grass. Low-carb is the hip thing to do these days; less demand for bread; more grain for the animals! Almost none of what feed animals eat is something you can put on your plate and get nutrition from. You might get some nutrition from feed corn; you almost certainly won't like it though. And I suppose you could grind up their grains and meal into flour for breads; but again, it isn't the consistent, controlled type of grains you're getting at the supermarket or farmers market. It's feed-grade. Cheap, fast growing, easy. And the cows don't care; they eat it and remain healthy. It's not 'unhealthy' vegetation; it's just not what you or I would WANT to eat; and it doesn't provide the same kind of nutrition (but it provides plenty of nutrition for them).

A lot of the farmers out here get a kick out of the suburban trend of wanting 'grass fed cattle'. The cows are smaller, less healthy, less hearty. It's bad for the cattle. And the meat in the end is less nutritious. But it sure is cheap! And they get to charge extra because it's "all natural grass fed".

Seriously, the way we've evolved to eat is amazing. We eat the hardiest, most prolifically breeding, and most nutritious animals out there which eat mostly the stuff we don't eat. Grass, grains, feed corn, etc. We could mow down all the feed corn and grow edible corn, sure. But we'd be growing a lot less feed corn. We can grow a LOT more feed corn in the same amount of space in the same amount of time. Feed corn turns into beef which turns into yummy steak. (Or, in my case, turns into chicken feed when ground up along with some grains, which is fed to chickens which turn into yummy grilled chicken breasts!) Wild harvested animals, like Venison, Salmon, Tuna, etc., eat stuff we aren't harvesting. None of us are plucking the insects, plankton, and other invertebrates from the water that the Salmon are eating. (Or the chickens, for that matter. Have you ever kept chickens? You won't have mosquitoes, ticks, spiders, etc. anymore if you have chickens! Plus nothing beats a fresh unmolested brown egg right off of the ground.)

Seriously; I know these days it's "hip" to think that millions of years of evolution got it wrong and we have to undo the mistakes of our ancestors but the truth is evolution is this freaking brilliant thing and our planet has been designed in this chaotic harmony that works really, really, really well.

By the way, I don't 'not' eat beef because of environmental concerns; though those are real (but it also stems to overpopulation, the real key issue. Not a lot of easy, moral solutions to that. Other than maybe discouraging folks from thinking they need to have 3 or 4 kids) But weight loss and getting fit are my big goals and it's hard to do that with beef and pork. Chicken and wild caught fish are far healthier options, far less fat, fewer calories; and in many cases more nutrition. I do occasionally have beef, but I treat it like ice cream. An occasional treat; not part of my regular diet.