Quora Question: What are some reasons to choose a pescatarian diet instead of vegetarian diet?

(also posted on naturenimbus.blogspot.ca sister site)

Interesting question... I have mixed feelings on answering this at all, but mind as well share these thoughts here for anyone considering looking for wards to reduce their carbon footprint.

https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-reasons-to-choose-a-pescatarian-diet-instead-of-vegetarian-diet

When it comes to reducing deaths, obviously pescatarianism does not win.

There probably aren’t many objective reasons outside individual health problems. However, more subjectively in some cases there might be some on a practical, “better than nothing” level. One part of changing a diet is the commitment factor. A lot of people decide to go vegetarian but then change their mind after a little while.

For meat-eaters who are looking to reduce their carbon footprint but won’t end up end up remaining committed to vegetarianism for whatever reason, pesc might be something to consider to still help reduce a person's carbon footprint overall, as some meats are worse than others for carbon emissions (especially cattle).

Also, depending on where you live seafood might be harder less accessible or more pricey, which could end up pushing a pescetarian eat vegetarian more days than not anyway.

Then there's having an understandable name that comes with rules. There are people who for whatever reasons cut out only beef or only red meat, or choose to only eat meat once a week. That might not be a bad idea, but one challenge with a restricted diet without a name is that it gets easily lumped into "flexible". This can be confusing to other people, or even make it easier to mentally rationalize having meat more than planned, such as under pressure to "just skip next week's portion to make up for it", even though next week's portion might not end up getting skipped.

Again, the commitment factor can make it better than nothing, if the alternative is "nothing".

For anyone who does eat seafood, I would highly recommend the guides on the Official Site of the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Sustainable Seafood Program, and Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Sustainable Seafood app. When it comes to seafood some options are also more sustainable than others, when it comes to wildlife, on an ecosystem-level, and also socially for human communities.