Ethical animal food

The time I went to Japan I had visited a sushi bar. I hated it, except for the salmon eggs. The Bengali in me liked my fish cooked with an array of spices. I am not a food aficionado, if someday they discover a pill for hunger I would be it's first customer- perhaps I am missing out on the basic joys of being a social animal with a taste bud, but I have never cared much about food or it's taste. But still I couldn't understand the fascination in having uncooked fish- we discovered fire years ago didn't we? 

A few days before leaving Japan I went to a local fish market. It was a fascinating case study in the family of fishes and marine animals. Someday I will put up the pictures. 

Japan being an island nation has a long history of fishing and whaling. Life was difficult in that island, and even today a lot of intensive work and investment goes in growing crops. The Japanese government once tried to defend their whaling activities (and also the slaughter of dolphins, around the infamous town of Taiji) by saying that they were eating up too many fishes (which was a joke but governments everywhere sound like that to lobby their vested interests.) On being bullied and affronted by the selectively moral western media, if they would stop whaling in case their activity was fully subsidised, the fishermen was said to have riposted, 'its not about money, it's about pest control.' 

Ric O' Barry who had a major role in the Oscar winning documentary, The Cove, says: "There is no other animal, on sea or land, like the dolphin. We have spent decades and millions of dollars trying to communicate with them, but they are always trying to communicate directly with us. They are the only wild animal I know who have saved human lives — not a few times, but repeatedly through history. They are superbly adapted to the ocean, and make even the best human swimmer look clumsy."

In a world ruled by Sapiens, its important to have a few close friends though, and it's important to treat them justly. Milan Kundera, had rightly pointed out in his philosophical treatise “True human goodness, in all its purity and freedom, can come to the fore only when its recipient has no power. Mankind's true moral test, its fundamental test (which is deeply buried from view), consists of its attitude towards those who are at its mercy: animals.” 

Although, the bigger question that humans must address when it comes to their food choices, and it doesn't dwell in the seemingly easy dichotomy of vegan-nonvegan beings (a hilarious yardstick of measuring morality in case of foods, but the compass is obviously tilted towards the vegans), is how to solve the dilemma that is pertinent to every conscious omnivore - What is ethical animal food?