I'm in Charlotte, NC on business, and I noticed an editorial in the local paper inspired by a recent spate of local animal-cruelty issues (and regulations) about cooking lobsters live, and keeping them in those grocery-store aquariums.
She (the author, and I'm recording this from memory, so I don't recall the name) brought up some very good points about this issue.
She mentions that vegans and vegetarians should stop and think before claiming the moral high-ground. She points out how many field mice are chewed up by wheat-harvesting machinery, and the environmental costs of having baby greens wrapped in plastic and shipped across state lines.
She wasn't suggesting that we should give up wheat for lobsters, but that we should try to be more aware of the trade-offs, and to eat food produced locally. She lives in a place where lobsters are plentiful, and are fed in a semi-wild fashion for about seven years before being harvested. She knows a lobster fisherman, and he pointed out that lobsters have more in common with mosquitoes than humans, so why are we so ready to defend the lobsters but eat the beef? Even if we stop boiling lobsters alive, you know we'll just start buying pre-boiled, packaged lobster nuggets, just so we don't have to hear those screams...
She mentions the book The Omnivore's Dilemma as a good place to read about the realities and trade-offs of our meals.
I think the biggest point was about proximity: Eat what's locally available (and therefore seasonal).
I'm not planning to change my diet, but then I have the great fortune of living very close to farms that bring fresh produce to the grocery store, and dairys that treat their cows quite humanely. (We have also planted an organic vegetable garden, and berry bushes, in our yard.) And that pretty much sums up my diet: Vegetarian, with a lot of dairy.
I hope I'm not being smug. I know I'm very fortunate. If my good fortune helps a little, great.
I may have to give some thought to those field mice, though...
