Healthy people are bad for the environment

I don't eat much fish. We are constantly bombarded with information on red meat being bad for us, but I have always loved the ocean and its inhabitants and feel way too guilty about depleting fish species to enjoy eating wild caught fish very often.

Its easy to make cows and pigs and chickens and removing them from the food chain doesn't cause harm to the environment.

The Japanese and Chinese have always been held up as models for healthy eating, but you've only to watch a few PBS nature programs to see Asian fishermen engaging in wholesale slaughter and destruction in all the worlds' oceans to feed their peoples' insatiable desire to consume sea creatures of every kind.

I accidently ate shark's fin soup once, before I realized what I was eating, at Chinese Christian co-worker's mother's funeral banquet and I am still feeling guilty years later. After a few bites I noticed the fibery strands of shark fin and stopped eating. I have always loved sharks, so much so that my friend, Abu R, used to call me "Sharky," when we were dating.

My other co-worker loves bird's nest soup, in which the important part of the nest, and soup, is the birds' saliva. I'd rather eat that than shark's fin soup.

One of my Chinese co-workers was explaining to me why many Chinese merchants are often rude to non-Chinese customers.

"They really don't want to encourage you to shop there, he said. White people often like to complain to the health dept about the lack of cleanliness and the mistreatment of animals at the stores. Also, they expect refunds, which the Chinese don't believe in giving."