Thinking of going Ecotarian?

There is a nice feature up on Treehugger about how our food choices, in terms of growth, choice and consumption, affect the environment. It covers many of the topics touched upon here on Just Saying so if you are new to this blog, think of it as a crash course.

Eco-friendly eater?

There is a fun and informative quiz up on Planet Green today. For all you loyal blog readers, scoring a 100% should be a breeze. Click here to test your ecotarian knowledge.

seafood selector

I think it is safe to say that I consider myself more of an ecotarian than a vegetarian. If there were an official term for someone who practices the principles of Michael Pollan, I suppose that would be the ideal "-tarian title" for me. I digress... What I am trying to say is that, living in close proximity to the East Coast and Chesapeake Bay, I eat my fair share of seafood but have been meaning to find out the most environmentally responsible way to do so.

Yesterday, as luck would have it (and as a contributing member) I received the Environmental Defense Fund's Pocket Seafood Selector that lists the best, worst, and okay seafood choices for you and the ocean. I've listed some of the best and worst, based on environmental and health factors, below but please check out/download to your mobile phone/print the seafood and sushi guides and learn more on this website. No more Chilean Sea bass for me.

BEST:

Char, Arctic (farmed)

Mackeral, Atlantic

Oysters (farmed)

Sablefish/black cod (Alaska, Canada)

Salmon (Alaska wild)

Salmon, canned pink/sockeye

Sardines (U.S.)

Trout, rainbow (farmed)

Tuna, albacore (Canada,U.S.)

WORST:

Chilean sea bass

Grouper

Orange Roughy

Salmon, farmed or Atlantic

Shark

Swordfish (imported)

Tuna, bigeye (longline)

Tuna, yellowfin (imported longline)

Tuna, bluefin

Ecotarian. Why didn't I think of that?

Just learned (via the treehugger newsletter) this term that refers to an individual who selects food with consideration for the environmental factors and energy used to produce it. Ecotarian. Sort of brilliantly obvious, don't you think?

The Guardian's Ethical Living columnist Lucy Siegle writes:

Ecotarianism has a winningly common-sense approach. The concept is simple: eat the foods with the lowest environmental burden, those with the lowest global-warming potential (GWP) and the least chance of messing up the planet via their acidification and pollution potential.